02 03 Inside HSCA: Meet a Member of the 114th Congress: Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

Meet a Member of the 114th Congress: Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA)

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Inside HSCA examines members of the 114th Congress who have a background in healthcare or who could have an impact on the supply chain.



Dr. William “Bill” Cassidy won’t be a new face on Capitol Hill—but he will be in a new place.

The Louisiana Republican is leaving the U.S. House of Representatives for the United States Senate after recently defeating incumbent Senator Mary Landrieu in a December 6th election runoff.

Cassidy, who served as a Louisiana state senator before being elected to U.S. Congress in 2008, has been involved in healthcare his entire professional life. He started practicing medicine in 1983 and has taught at Louisiana State University Medical School since 1990. Furthermore, the Baton Rouge-based physician has undertaken many projects aimed at helping the uninsured and underinsured both in his community and overseas.

For example, Cassidy created a private-public partnership to vaccinate 36,000 children in the Baton Rouge area against Hepatitis B at no cost to parents; he co-founded the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic, which provides free health and dental care to individuals who work but lack insurance; and he provided medical treatment while travelling to Africa several times with his wife Laura, who is a surgeon.

Cassidy has also said that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act will be among his top priorities in the 114th Congress.

In a statement from his website, Cassidy says he has “always been committed to making sure all Americans have access to good health care,” and explains this should be achieved through free-market solutions that “give patients the power, not Washington DC bureaucrats.”

Cassidy has already been assigned a seat on the influential Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), where he will use his background in healthcare to shape legislation when he joins the upper chamber in January.

A graduate of LSU and LSU Medical School, Cassidy lives in the Baton Rouge area with his wife Laura and their three children.

For more information on Senator-elect Bill Cassidy, visit his campaign website here.

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