Schrier holds Town Hall meeting

US Congressional Representative for District 8, Dr. Kim Schrier, held a Town Hall discussion in Leavenworth on Sunday. Dr. Schrier received her degree from The University of California at Berkley. She is a Democrat.

Approximately 30 people were in attendance at the event.

During her opening dialogue Representative Schrier admitted that the Affordable Care Act is flawed but she ran because she was concerned about the drumbeat to repeal it. At the time she ran Dr. Schrier was a practicing physician whose clients included a significant number with preexisting conditions.

Representative Schrier said she was surprised that Congress was not the contentious place she had expected. It is a much more gentile environment and she has worked with many people across the aisle in order to address some of her concerns.

Having said that it is important to note that Representative Schrier was confronted by a front row of individuals wearing Make America Great Hats.

Representative Schrier said she has worked with Republican Dan Newhouse on a bill to reform immigration laws as they apply to guest workers. They just introduced a joint bill to reform the guest worker laws as they apply to agricultural workers because they can’t wait for a comprehensive immigration bill.

Schrier said many of these workers already have a long history of living here and her bill would help them find a path to citizenship.

Dr. Schrier encouraged the individuals in attendance to turn off their TV’s and to not pay attention to news they saw on Facebook or Twitter. “Read more,” she said. Get your news from multiple sources.

Most of the questions posed to Dr. Schrier focused on health issues.

The first involved concerns about vaccines. Representative Schrier was unwavering in her position that vaccines are safe and while a small percentage of the population may have side effects that are undesirable as soon as those are discovered those drugs are taken off the market.

Schrier said most of the people who oppose vaccines have forgotten all of the horrible diseases that have been eradicated as a result of the use of vaccines. Diseases like small pox and polio have virtually eliminated those diseases.

Schrier went on to talk about health care. She said she is the only woman doctor in Congress. There are 17 doctors in Congress and only 3 are Democrats. Schrier said she is co-chair of the new Democrat task force on health care.

“Health Care is a complicated issue and I don’t think people who have not worked in health care should be driving the decisions,” said Schrier.

She went on to say that while we all want Universal Health care – that means everyone has coverage. She said she didn’t believe a single payer system is the only solution.

Schrier said they are working on a program where they limit the amount of your income you pay for health care to no more than 8.5%.

Schrier said they are also working on a program to limit the price drug companies can charge for prescription drugs to no more than 1.2 times what the drug sells for in six other countries.

Finally, Schrier said they are working on a bill to address “surprise billing” issues. This is where patients get a surprise bill because one on the supporting medical service providers was “not in the network.”