A Promise for Better Tomorrows Presented at Town Hall
On Saturday, August 15, 2009, John Waltz, 2010 Democratic candidate for congress from Kentucky’s Fourth District, held a town hall meeting in Covington, KY. Candace Witte, Unions for Waltz Director, opened with supportive remarks that were followed by a concise and excellent speech on healthcare by Kentucky Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Daniel Mongiardo.
John Waltz, a disabled Navy veteran and opponent of incumbent, Geoff Davis, then said in his opening remarks: “I know what some of you are thinking: ‘He does not look like a typical Congressman.’ And I am here to tell you, my fellow Kentuckians, I am not and will not be your typical Congressman”. Waltz characterized himself as “someone who has not been influenced by special interests; someone who does not pride himself on being obstructive; and someone who DOES pride himself on being constructive!”
Subsequent to the speech, Waltz fielded a lively dialogue with questions ranging from healthcare to veterans issues. Regarding one question on healthcare, he said that a Kaiser Family Foundation study stated that for every dollar spent on healthcare, prevention gave back two dollars. For those interested in studying the Kaiser comparison of healthcare proposals, it can be accessed at http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/healthreform_sbs_full.pdf.
The point was also made that the Palin “Death Panels” provision, that actually only assures payment for a medical visit to discuss Living Wills and other directives, was actually enacted under George H. W. Bush. Thus, hospitals are already responsible for asking if patients have these documents and for providing help in their preparation where necessary. The new bill just moves the process to one between doctor and patient.
In discussing Veterans’ affairs, Waltz stated that unlike Ohio, which has VA Hospitals in every county, Kentucky has far fewer, and veterans often have to drive as much as three hours for a doctor’s appointment. He suggested that giving them a medical card that would be used locally is a far better solution and said that he would fight for that. He also remarked that future generations are going to take a long hard look at joining the armed services if veterans have to continue to fight for the rights that were already promised to them.
When mention was made of the length of the Healthcare bill as an impediment to decision makers’ actually reading it, the point was made that the Patriot Act bill was also around a thousand pages, and it went through in a week.
Lt. Governor Mongiardo’s introduction stressed the urgency of finding solutions, with Medicare due to collapse in about eight years. Presently, he said, 16% of our GDP or one in five jobs is devoted to healthcare, representing the largest segment of our economy.
He outlined the context in which Kentucky is working with Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics to become the first state to successfully migrate present paper based medicine into sophisticated and life-saving electronic record keeping, and he pointed out there would be no loss of patient privacy.
Dr. Mongiardo asked his audience to imagine a time when a person involved in an automobile accident 100 miles from home could arrive at the nearest hospital, and immediately the doctors would have his records, would be automatically alerted to any dangerous drug interactions pertaining to what they administer, and further, would be able to access the technical help of specialists all over the world. “For Kentucky,” he added, “we can not only lower the cost of our healthcare but also provide a platform for business incubation as we become the center of this expertise for other states and corporations.” He mentioned that ten years of research has already gone into this initiative. Deploring the endless wrangling that is going on, he said, “We need to fix healthcare with science not politics.”
Mongiardo concluded by saying that he believes John Waltz is the candidate who can go to Washington and work hard for the issues that concern Kentuckians.
