When large healthcare systems dominate local markets, patients may lose choice, competition, and access to independent physicians they trust. Karing Hearts PAC is fighting for policies that help preserve independent medicine in Northeast Tennessee. Stay informed by joining our email list for updates on local healthcare policy, legislation, and ways you can help protect patient choice in our community.
Your Doctor Should Answer to You. Not a Corporation.
When One System Controls Your Healthcare, You Lose the Right to Choose.
Our goal is to ensure your care remains personal, local, and in your hands. When corporations monopolize your community, patients lose the freedom to choose the care they deserve. We're fighting to make sure that never happens in Northeast Tennessee.
The Risks of Healthcare Consolidation
Healthcare consolidation across the country has changed how care is delivered in many communities. In Northeast Tennessee, the Ballad Health merger significantly reshaped the regional healthcare landscape. Many policy experts note that reduced competition can influence pricing, service availability, and patient choice.
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When healthcare markets become more concentrated, patients may have fewer options when selecting doctors, specialists, or facilities. Independent practices often provide alternative care options that can increase competition and allow patients to choose providers that best meet their needs.
Maintaining multiple healthcare providers in a region helps ensure patients retain flexibility in where and how they receive care.
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Economic research has frequently found that reduced competition in healthcare markets can be associated with higher prices for certain services. When fewer systems operate in a region, insurers and employers may have fewer alternatives when negotiating rates.
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Patients often seek second opinions when making important medical decisions. In more concentrated healthcare markets, patients may have fewer independent providers available for alternative perspectives.
Maintaining multiple independent practices can help support informed healthcare decisions.
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Independent practices often increase scheduling capacity in local markets. When fewer independent providers operate in a community, patients may experience reduced appointment availability or fewer choices for convenient appointment times.
Access to flexible scheduling can be important for working families and individuals managing ongoing care needs.
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Healthy competition encourages healthcare providers to continually improve access, patient experience, and service offerings. When healthcare markets become more concentrated, patients may have fewer alternatives for care and fewer opportunities to compare providers.
A diverse healthcare environment can help ensure communities benefit from ongoing improvements and responsive care options.
The FTC Is Warning About Healthcare Competition
Federal regulators are sounding the alarm on policies that could leave patients with fewer choices and higher costs.
The Federal Trade Commission has warned that removing oversight of a hospital system, without allowing competition, creates a dangerous imbalance.
Their findings show this can result in:
Monopoly control over care
Increased prices for patients
Limited access to services
This is exactly the kind of system patients should be protected from.
Join the people standing up for healthcare freedom in Tennessee.
Real change in District 3 starts at the grassroots level. Sign up below and we'll make sure you have everything you need between now and primary day, including updates on the race, healthcare news, and a reminder to get out and vote on August 6th.
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Why This Matters in Your Area
Independent healthcare practices play an important role in our community. They provide personalized care, create local jobs, and give patients meaningful choices in where they receive treatment.
When healthcare markets become concentrated, communities may experience fewer provider options, reduced competition, and less flexibility in how care is delivered.
Protecting independent medicine helps preserve patient choice and supports a strong local healthcare system.
How We’re Fighting Back
Endorsements
We research, vet, and endorse local and state candidates who are committed to protecting independent medicine and patient choice in Northeast Tennessee.
Funding
Your support funds the campaigns of candidates who will stand up to corporate healthcare consolidation and keep community medicine alive.
Mobilization
We turn awareness into action through organizing voters, educating the public, and building a coalition that can't be ignored at the ballot box.
Your Vote Can Make a Difference · August 6th, 2026 Republican Primary · District 3
Rusty Crowe, It’s Time To Go!
For over three decades, District 3 has had the same senator. One who helped engineer the healthcare consolidation that has squeezed independent providers, limited patient choice, and shaped policy from a seat on Ballad Health's payroll. Dan Pohlgeers is running because Northeast Tennessee deserves better than that.
“As a state senator, I think that’s a conflict.”
Dan isn't a career politician. He's a businessman with an MBA, a longtime community member, and an early critic of the COPA agreement that gave Ballad Health its monopoly grip on this region. Not someone who waited 35 years and a primary challenge to suddenly discover the problem.
Dan Pohlgeers
Community First
Opposed the Ballad COPA from the beginning
No financial ties to Ballad or corporate health systems
Believes in patient choice and independent provider competition
A fresh voice after 35 years of the same senator
Rusty Crowe
35 Years, Same Seat
Sponsored the 2018 bill that created the Ballad monopoly
Lists Ballad Health as a source of personal income
Chairs the Senate Health Committee, the very committee that oversees Ballad.
Now claims to support Karing Hearts after decades of not doing so
Make a Difference
Stand up for Northeast Tennessee’s Future
When one healthcare system owns everything in your region, competition dies and your options go with it. That is not healthcare. That is control. Karing Hearts PAC exists to make sure Tennessee families keep the freedom to choose their own care. Every dollar you give goes straight toward organizing, outreach, and holding the right people accountable.