Health Care and Addiction Concern Zoom Visiting Senate Primary Candidate
At last count, 14 primary candidates vie for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. One of those, Dr. Kevin Baumlin, Zoomed into a meeting of Delaware Valley Action! last week, as the group, a 501c4 organization, decides who they will support in the primary. They evaluate candidates according to their values, listed on the DVA website, not their party, according to founder Ed Gragert.
Baumlin, who visited DVA in person previously, recently retired from chairing the emergency medicine department at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. He spoke from his hospital-centered view.
“A sick woman with two $10 an hour jobs came in with a low oxygen count but felt she needed to go to work,” Baumlin said. “What do employers need to pay a living wage? The problem is deductibles. A deductible can be 20% of your income, and with bad debt, you can’t borrow what you need. People need to be able to buy into Medicare and have home services.”
A DVA member pointed out that the Senate includes four Republican doctors.
“What’s your policy point?” he asked.
“We need four hours per day of home care for older adults,” said Baumlin. “All over the country people talk about home care for older adults who’ll do a shift with parents. The strain breaks up families. We need to reform Medicare.”
He also asserted the value of “teaching people how to use drugs appropriately.”
“Alcohol is more addictive than marijuana,” he said. “We need treatment for addicts and national leadership on drugs.
E.K. Guyre, of DVA, said that she had just graduated from East Stroudsburg University with a social work degree but was being offered jobs for $13-14 an hour.
“Psycho-social needs are part of health,” said Baumlin. “Schools and hospitals need social workers. There’s a shortage of psychiatrists who accept current pay for services. If pay was more, there would be more beds.”
He advocated for more treatment, less incarceration of addicts, shared services from state to state, county to county, and better integration of immigrants into communities.
But DVA members saw obstacles to these good intentions without clear strategies.
“You think you can speak to power, but they don’t want change,” said Harry Nelsen, retired sociology professor.
“Money and lobbyists are problems,” said Greg Lotorto, who had been an activist against fracking and natural gas infrastructure.
After Baumlin left the meeting, another DVA member, who noted that he had been scrutinizing the 14 primary candidates, said, “All the candidates come from different backgrounds but have similar platforms. But they all lack the essence of how to make them happen.”
A woman noted that Medicare is a federal program but Medicaid is a state program.
“We have 50 states with different programs. If Pennsylvania offered four hours daily of home health care, we’d lead the nation,” she said.
“Pennsylvania could be a model for the U.S.,” said Gragert.
Lotorto expressed doubt.
“The youth electorate don’t think they need healthcare and don’t want to pay,” he said. “But addiction is a serious problem. Many of my son’s peers have overdosed.
Gragert showed a photo of face masks labeled “vaccinated,” which he had ordered for the group and discussed future events.