Benjamin Rush Institute
Educating medical students on the importance of medical freedom through free market ideas. PRI President and CEO Sally C.
In 2008, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) created the Benjamin Rush Society (BRS), an organization with the goal of becoming one of the most important educational efforts in the fight against government-controlled medicine and the incremental emergence of a government monopoly over health care in the United States. From the first debate in 2009, the Benjamin Rush Society (BRS) has achieved steady consistent growth, tripling the number of events since the 2010-2011 academic year. Starting off as a division of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), BRS is now prepared to operate as a fully independent organization. Incorporated on Jan. 14th, BRS received official IRS recognition as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization on April 17th of this year. Adoption of our new name, the Benjamin Rush Institute (BRI) along with transfer of funds and complete formal separation from PRI is planned to occur mid-July. Modeled on the success of the Federalist Society, the BRI is an organization composed of medical doctors, residents, fellows, medical students, and other health care professionals who believe that the profession of medicine calls its practitioners to serve their patients, rather than the government. The Benjamin Rush Institute believes that the doctor-patient relationship is sacred and central to effective medical care. In order for this relationship to provide the greatest benefits both to patients and to society at large, physicians and patients must be free to choose whether to enter into, and maintain, this relationship or not. Furthermore, the decision-making authority must remain within the doctor-patient relationship, with minimal influence from bureaucracies. Benjamin Rush believed in these principles a, was a leading doctor in the American founding era, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He believed in the profession of medicine and in the founding principles of America, and he viewed them as complementary, not mutually exclusive. Pipes was the intellectual progenitor of the BRS, and laid the groundwork for establishing the organization with a founding exploratory conference on May 8, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Twenty leading free-market professors of medicine, physicians, health economists, and think tank executives—including Gene Meyer, president of the Federalist Society—were in attendance at the all-day meeting. Following the support and enthusiasm of this initial meeting, the BRS has solidified into a robust organization with chapters developing at nearly 20 universities across the nation. The BRS held four successful debates in 2009, at Columbia University, Harvard University, George Washington University, and Texas A&M.
09/25/2026
"Markets work when consumers can compare prices and choose among competitors. Healthcare should be no exception."
The latest from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-consumer-choice-should
09/21/2026
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have become a target of political suspicion since the COVID-19 pandemic. Skepticism about the government’s pandemic response is one thing, but writing off an entire medical technology is another.
Read the latest from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-the-first-mrna-flu-vaccine
09/16/2026
There’s a way to stop foreign drug free-riding without importing price controls at home.
Read the latest from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-use-trade-policy-to-push
09/14/2026
CHOICE Arrangements offer employers an easier way to help finance coverage and give workers something too few have today: control over their own health insurance.
The latest from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-a-new-name-for-a-better
09/11/2026
We're only ONE WEEK AWAY from our chat with Dr. Torres Hodges!
Be sure to RSVP using the link below. (You might just learn something that could change the trajectory of your medical career...)
👇👇👇
https://www.benjaminrushinstitute.org/events/bri-virtual-speaker-series-doctor-do-doctor-dont/
09/10/2026
Voters want tangible relief from the insurers and middlemen who make it harder and more expensive to get the care their doctors recommend.
Republicans have begun delivering that relief.
More from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-gop-shouldnt-run-away
09/08/2026
For years, Washington has responded to unaffordable insurance by subsidizing ever-higher premiums. AHPs can give small businesses power to negotiate lower costs for their employees in the first place.
More from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-association-health-plans
09/01/2026
The freedom to make decisions about your own health care varies dramatically depending on where you live. Thanks to a new Health Freedom Index developed by the Center for Modern Health and the Knee Regulatory Research Center at West Virginia University, we now have a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of how each state ranks in 54 policy variables across five categories assessing professional, institutional, patient, payment, and delivery freedom.
In this episode, we examine the report’s key findings and discuss ways in which the legal and regulatory environments in certain states affect how health care can be rendered and, naturally, how that affects patients. In addition to spotlighting the top five and bottom five performers, we also highlight the states which have improved and worsened by the widest margins in the last half-decade.
Many thanks to the folks at CMH and WVU for all the hard work on this outstanding report!
Listen on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Y0RTiSPpPc6BPsQg1JYXo
Read the Health Freedom Index:
https://centerformodernhealth.org/publications/health-freedom-index-2026-edition
08/26/2026
In 2024, Americans spent about FOUR times as much on hospital care ($1.6 trillion) as they did on prescription drugs ($467 billion). And although prescription drug prices are decreasing, hospital prices are increasing.
And yet the vast majority of Washington policymakers focus their time and attention on reducing drug prices, not hospital costs.
More from BRI Founder & Chair Sally Pipes:
https://benjaminrush1776.substack.com/p/sally-pipes-why-hospital-prices-keep
08/25/2026
Every year, the State Policy Network Annual Meeting is the best place to meet, learn from, and build new partnerships with some of the smartest minds working to advance liberty at the state level. This year is, of course, no different.
We at the Benjamin Rush Institute are honored to be part of this network and we look forward to bringing new ideas to the fight for free market medicine!
If you're here in Orlando too, shoot us a message and come say hello!
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
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