Ruben Gallego (CD-7) and Ann Kirkpatrick (CD-2), two Democratic representatives in U.S. Congress joined Alicia Held, an Arizona healthcare advocate, to talk about the state of health coverage in Arizona. They discussed what citizens can expect in the future during a press call hosted by Protect Our Care Arizona.
Rep. Gallego said more than 20 million Americans have healthcare because of the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans have “waged a war” against it. He said Democrats need to fight back in order to keep coverage for those who need it most.
“Americans shouldn’t have to choose between paying for healthcare and buying groceries,” he said.
A push for Medicaid expansion and financial assistance for families who need extra help keeping their loved ones healthy is a top priority of the representative from Phoenix, who has held his seat in Congress since 2015.
Held shared a personal story of how access to affordable health care changed her life permanently. She was unexpectedly diagnosed with a tumor in her pituitary gland. Before that time, she had no insurance policy so it took eight years for her diagnosis to happen.
Because of that delay and lack of access to care, Held is now permanently disabled by the condition, which comes with ongoing prescriptions for expensive pharmaceutical drugs just to keep her alive.
Her brain surgery costed $50,000, a price that was paid by her parents through their life savings fund.
“A lot of people were not as lucky as I am to have that family support and financial resources at their disposal,” Held said.
Because of the major sacrifices and life-long effects caused by her condition, Held has become an advocate for affordable healthcare for all, including those with pre-existing conditions, and lowering the costs of prescription drugs.
“I’ve worked my entire life, I have a masters in social work, my family is living on the edge of poverty because of the cost of medical care and the cost of keeping me alive,” she said.
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who has represented Arizona in several state and federal elected offices, said affordable healthcare is so important because you can never expect these financial burdens before they arrive.
“I’m dedicated to keeping people on their health insurance,” she said. “In Arizona we expanded Medicaid which provided almost 400,000 Arizonans with coverage and a 37 percent drop in the uninsured rate.”
Kirkpatrick, who indicated that she is a supporter of Medicare for All, listed the following things she’d like to see changed in either the ACA or national politics regarding healthcare:
- An end to the “war on people with pre existing conditions” and laws passed to make that permanent
- Lower costs for prescription drugs, and pharmaceutical companies held accountable by Congress
- An end to the Republican “sabotage” on health care
- Oversight conducted on the Trump administration’s actions
“I’m very opposed to the new work requirements on medicaid beneficiaries,” Kirkpatrick said. “It hurts people, hospitals and medicare service providers.”
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2019.
A few questions:
1. Since Medicare is going broke, can we expect Medicare for All to also go broke around the same time?
2. Who will be responsible for controlling costs? The U.S. government has proven absolutely awful at cost control in healthcare – further subsidization is likely to make the problem worse.
3. People with private insurance already massively subsidize Medicare, Medicaid, and those without insurance. How will that subsidy be made up when private insurers go out of business?
4. Many doctors already don’t accept Medicare because reimbursement rates are too low. 5. Will doctors be arrested and forced to work if they refuse to accept Medicare for All?
6. Will all of the employees of Aetna, Blue Cross, and the other 1,000 or so private insurers be given new jobs when they lose theirs?
bslap Those are all questions that the lazy media and the left wing lurchers will NEVER ask. It would expose the sure failures of another government scheme for votes.
The Constitutional Democracy of the United State, is based upon private property rights, a market economy, and the unfettered accumulation of wealth. These are the tools that our society uses through which individual and national ambitions for freedom and happiness may be reached. Could this be an illusion and productive of neither, and, in fact, destructive of both when pursued in contradiction to community interests and achieved on the miseries or credulity of others? Can we look at our own enormous wealth and see, at the same time, our own decadence; the untrammeled pursuit of individual wealth and luxury that has been destructive of both community and individual interests as evidenced by a decaying system of Public Education, Public Health Care, and, in fact, the decay of the very health of our Citizens?—- all related to the centrifugal focus of our Society.
The primary focus of Government is the development of Citizens primarily through Public Education and Health Care; both should be provided at Public Expense and NOT through a “Free Market, Profit Based Economic System” where maximizing Profit and Salaries are the primary motivations and not First Rate Systems of Public Education and Health Care for ALL US Citizens; understanding that the very Nature of Human Society involves an Inherent Relatedness, Commonality, and Mutual Dependence; Domestically and Internationally.
This will NOT change until Arizona Voters DEMAND Change.
Wake Up Arizona Voters and change our Political/Social to Representative Social Democracy.
I believe a strong economy is the answer in solving the health care problems in our country. Obviously, there are certain individuals where government will have to reach out to and provide assistance. However, those of us who have the means to purchase health insurance with policies that suite our individual needs, without government interference, and tempering with our freedom to choose between healthcare providers is the best option.