Kansas City Pulls Together for Health Care Access

Let me start by saying a huge "THANK YOU!!!" to every registered voter who turned out today to vote "YES" to pass the Health Care Levy. We just sent a very loud message to Jeff City, and we should be proud of ourselves for doing it. I know this will represent quite a burden for a lot of elderly homowners, and I am grateful they voted for the greater good. It says something about us, and about our character as a city that we sucked it up - pulled it out when this will raise taxes on the average home. This jump brings us closer in line with other areas I have lived, as far as property tax rates go. I am on record that I not only oppose the Republican tax cuts, I don't think most of us pay enough taxes. I can drive from Kansas City to Portland, Oregon and have a flush toilet every 45 minutes. If I call 911, I get a cop or a fire truck or an ambulance. Government budgets pay for these vital employees. I spent the last two years in emergency medicine, in one of Kansas City's major inner-city medical centers, and I worked with a lot of civil servants who were feeling the strain of their brothers in arms deployed to the middle east. I know we feel it in health care. Too many nurses, lab techs and respiratory therapists are deployed. If you need a hospital right now, ask about staffing and the effects of this foolish war...but I digress...Budgets and guarantees of jobs to return to are keeping replacements from being hired. Meanwhile the guys and girls at home keeping order on the streets, rendering emergency care, and putting out fires with too few staff haven't had a decent raise in years. It is pathetic and sad, and quite frankly embarassing that they are so taken for granted by those they serve. They deserve better Kansas City. We owe them our safety and security, and a decent wage.

But we sent a message today! Because enough of you looked inside yourselves and went to the polls to vote, the Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center will stay open at 8th and Euclid. Because you turned out and voted "yes," all of the clinics throughout the city that are operated by Swope Parkway Health Services will remain open. And Truman Medical Center will continue offering some of the best quality public healthcare in the country.

This will be discussed in the chambers in Jeff City tomorrow. Matt Blunt should be reeling about now. Kansas Citians and Jackson Countians just raised their property taxes significantly because the governor slashed medicaid funding and cut the state health budget. The effects of his cuts in the area of healthcare are manifold: First, when Medicaid kicks folks out of the program they become totally uninsured. This population tends to utilize the hospital ER as their primary care provider. This spirals the cost of healthcare upward as hospitals write-off uncollectable debts for these patients, and pass them on to insured patients by increasing the cost of services, and by charging Blue Cross or United Health Care eight bucks for an aspirin. The governor slashed the funding for the healthcare budget, so the public health clinics are between a rock and a hard spot...They have more patients to serve every day, but less resources to treat them. Fewer and fewer doctors in private practice accept Medicaid assignments, pushing their patients to the public health sector. Poor kids in this state might wait eight months to see a dentist. It is deplorable and Kansas City took a stand against injustice when we went to the polls today.

Let me say this as someone who has spent the better part of two decades in the trenches. I have worked in public health facilities, public hospitals, and inner-city trauma centers. I have seen more gunshot wounds than the average army surgeon. I have dealt with so many populations I honestly do not know how many languages I can put someone at ease in. I have seen this system from the bottom looking up, because I was so fucking tired I collapsed. I have gotten out of bed and gone to work every day for three years without even a token raise in a public health clinic but I did my job with a smile for my patients every single day because I believe in what I do for a living. My years of service to human kind have led me to one staunch belief that I will espouse and fight for until the day they harvest my usable parts: Health care is not a commodity to be purchased at a premium. Quality health care is a basic human right. Tonight, I will eventually unwind from this victory and go to sleep, and it will be with a contented smile on my face, because suddenly, I don't feel like I am the only one who feels that way any more.

Thank you Kansas City.