November 2024
Dear President-Elect Trump, Vice President-Elect Vance, and Members of the Transition Team:
We at Solidarity HealthShare, a healthcare sharing ministry devoted to facilitating the delivery of affordable, holistic healthcare of the highest quality to all patients since 2016, write to congratulate you on your November 5 election victory and ask that you take swift steps towards fixing our nation’s broken healthcare system as the new administration assumes office in January 2025.
Over the past four years, Americans have seen the cost of their healthcare rise exponentially under a health system and an FDA plagued by waste and inefficiency even as the quality of care has plummeted. In 2025, families on the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plan are projected to pay an average of 13.5% more for their plans, the largest healthcare premium increase in more than a decade. Studies also show that the United States is falling far behind other nations in its ability to provide essential medical care to patients who need it – no thanks to Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Hospital Systems’ depersonalized, bureaucratic approach to treatment.
For this reason, we respectfully request you thoroughly assess our current healthcare system which is no longer serving patient needs. We believe that any honest assessment clearly points to the need for urgent and radical improvements, including of the FDA’s policies that favor Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Hospital Systems over patients.
We offer the below recommendations as a way to start realizing a vision for a healthier America.
First, a holistic, individualized approach to federal healthcare is in short order. Under current regulations, patients who seek such care must go outside of their traditional health plans to receive it or opt into health sharing ministries that provide the personal care they desire. The Trump administration must encourage diagnostics and treatments that address the root causes of chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and reverse the medical industry’s current costly habit of merely treating symptoms. By leveraging technologies and therapies like peptides and stem cells, now restricted by the FDA, the administration could unleash a new wave of care tailored to each individual person.
The administration must also unleash medical innovation and increase the U.S. standard of care by overhauling the FDA’s patent restrictions. Providers and patients must be freed to use off label medications and alternative treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat conditions including COVID-19 and be empowered to rely on nutraceuticals and vitamins that enhance patient health but that cannot be patented under current FDA guidelines.
To further protect Americans’ health, the administration must ensure top notch environmental quality and public health protections. Far too many patients suffer from chronic and terminal conditions resulting from environmental toxicities. Yet, their doctors frequently fail to consider environmental causes when diagnosing patients. In fact, most oncologists never evaluate carcinogens when patients come to them with cancer, even though many toxins are carcinogenic. Our government leaders should bolster regulations on pollutants that harm air and water quality and remove dangerous chemicals from food and water supplies, including endocrine disruptors, plastics and forever chemicals – each linked to cancer and respiratory diseases.
The Trump team must also address our nation’s unchecked production of processed, nutrient-deficient foods contributing to chronic diseases, undermining Americans’ health, and reducing the lifespans of their families and loved ones. Patient diets would be dramatically improved if the administration pushed back on easy access to processed foods and additives harming the population and increased access to nutrient-dense whole foods, especially among underserved communities.
Addressing the root causes of illness and prioritizing positive outcomes for individual patients has proven highly effective for improving the health Solidarity HealthShare members. All Americans deserve access to this kind of care.
In addition to each of these steps, the administration can make America healthy again by promoting each person’s God-given dignity and inherent right to life. Health policies should be centered around protecting the doctor-patient relationship and providing life-affirming healthcare to the most vulnerable, especially the elderly, the unborn and the chronically ill. Securing this type of care would not only protect faithful Catholics in healthcare who after having their conscience rights threatened by Vice President Harris voted for Trump at the ballot box by an 18-point margin, but it would reflect the reality that holistic, life affirming care is also the highest quality healthcare for all Americans.
We, the undersigned at Solidarity HealthShare, urge the future Trump administration to empower Americans to take charge of their health by embracing a personalized, effective model of healthcare with patient wellbeing in mind.
A healthier future for America is within reach.
Sincerely,
Chris Faddis
President of Solidarity HealthShare
Dr. John C. Oertle, NMD
Chief Medical Officer of Solidarity HealthShare