Persistence and diligence as a candidate won this election for Andy Kim.
As a 38 year old progressive epileptologist (neurologist who subspecializes in epilepsy & seizure disorders) who built and developed the only National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) Level 3 Accredited Epilepsy Program in Ocean County, NJ — I am proud tonight to find out that Mr. Andy Kim is now poised to defeat Congressman Tom MacArthur — the Trumpian incumbent who authored the MacArthur amendment.
With final tallies trickling in, it appears that Mr. Kim has taken the lead and will win to become the Congressman-elect representing the 3rd congressional district of NJ — long heavily favored to remain GOP held.
This victory for Mr. Kim is personal to be. You see, in 2017 I invited Congressman MacArthur to visit my epilepsy unit at Community Medical Center in Toms River, NJ. After winning the NJBIZ 2016 NJ “Physician of the Year” in their Healthcare Heroes Awards Ceremony, Congressman MacArthur send a congratulatory note to me thanking me for all the work I do within his congressional district.
While the gesture was nice, my purpose in life is to care for the health and well being of my epileptic patients. So I decided to use my new-found “celebrity” to my advantage and called Congressman MacArthur’s office. I ended speaking with his chief of staff — a guy named Frank and invited Congressman MacArthur through Frank to come visit my hospital to meet some of my epileptic patients.
Unfortunately, things got delayed and Congressman MacArthur visited the hospital the day after he was yelled at in a Town Hall in Burlington County in May of 2017. Due to this “bad publicity” from the day prior, Congressman MacArthur’s team decided to come to the hospital but only to talk with hospital administrators and myself and meet with my 2 patients off of camera.
My 2 patients — both who suffer from epilepsy — both benefited from the insurance benefits they received with the passing of the Affordable Care Act. I wanted Congressman MacArthur to meet these two people personally, to hear their stories and, perhaps naive thinking on my part, I thought this would be a subtle and powerful way for him to rethink his stance on the ACA and “repeal.”
Unfortunately, what he did on that day I can never forget. He essentially told my two patients that despite their struggles — he implied that what is best is to revert back to the way things were because, “blah blah socialized medicine blah blah.”
Because of this incident, I decided to make it my mission this election cycle — out of duty to my patients — that Congressman MacArthur needed to be replaced. He was actively working against the best interests of patients with chronic conditions like epilepsy by advocating for the repeal of healthcare benefits and he was offering NO alternatives to the dilemma of healthcare in the US.
In August of 2017, I reached out to Andy Kim for Congress after reading about this young man with an impressive education wanting to face off against MacArthur. Within a day, Andy contacted me on my cell phone to discuss my concerns as an epileptologist in Ocean County, NJ.
Raised as a secular Zorastrian with values resembling that of a 75+ year old senator for Vermont, I live my life advocating for universal healthcare as an American right. With this in mind, I expressed to Mr. Kim the problems I see within working as a subspecialist in Ocean County. I relayed to him the most common complaints my patients have (cost of specialty drugs). I asked him what is his healthcare policy when I spoke with him and at that time in 2017 — Andy answered to me that he was in the research stage of his policy making and wanted to hear more from patients and providers before he made his own plans regarding healthcare. While he believes in universal healthcare, he wanted to see practical solutions based on reality — not ideal proposals that would go nowhere once applied to real situations. You know what? I respected that. I did not hear a canned response — only to make someone like me feel good. It was Andy who suggested that he meet with a group of MDs/DOs and so the next month myself along with 12 other local physicians all met at Shogun Legacy for dinner to discuss with Andy Kim what problems we saw.
At the dinner, I remember most of the physicians thought Andy would have no chance against MacArthur. Andy listed to each of us and questioned us pointedly about why we thought the way we each throught about healthcare. I noted his deliberative approach to decision making a policy making and realized that we are dealing with a thinker — someone who charts his own policies rather than someone who rehashes someone elses policies while trying to pass it off as his own. It was with this observation that I gave Andy my first donation.
Within several months and early this year — I believe just after January, Andy started picking up in noticability. He started meeting many constituents. He pounded the pavement. He did not accept large corporate donations and raised through the ActBlue grassroots campaigns. I donated regularly to his campaign — not as his potential constituent but as the doctor of many of his potential constituents (my congressman is Chris Smith who unfortunately defeated Joshua Welle yesterday).
Little by little, I noticed the traction Andy was gaining. Little by little, I started to even hear the die hard Trump patients I have in Ocean County talk about this “Kim guy” will be good for medicare.
Tom MacArthur did himself no favors by not appearing in many debate forums with Mr. Kim. MacArthur as the incumbent felt that he would cake walk his way back into office without having to be held to account by his constituents. Tom MacArthur was wrong and now he is to be GONE.
The NJ 3rd Congressional District will now be represented by a true native born son who is the son of hard working immigrants (just like I am) with youth, vision and a brilliant thinking mind that will bring back rationality to legislating at the federal level. NJ3 constituents will be so much better served by someone who is not a Trump lackey.
Andy Kim is putting people first! Congratulations Congressman-elect Andy Kim!
I am so proud of you Andy Kim!
Amor R. Mehta, MD
