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healthcare-costs-womens-health-amp-the-threat-of-rfk-jr-vp-kamala-harris

Healthcare Costs, Women’s Health, &amp; The Threat Of RFK Jr. | VP Kamala Harris

welcome to the checkup podcast where today I had the pleasure of speaking to vice president kamla Harris I was curious to know about her plans surrounding healthcare costs anti-science rhetoric barriers to Primary Care Women's Health and the risks children face while eating overly processed foods for lunch and while those topics are timely and important at the end of the day I'm a family medicine doctor so I had to ask an important lifestyle question are you getting your 7 to n hours of sleep these days or it's stupid for not really not really but I will I'll catch up do you believe in catching up on sleep by the way yeah absolutely there there's always a little bit of sleep debt that you could pay back yeah I think so yeah so I I'll I'll make up for it later okay fair well uh I'm excited to chat about healthc care policy because I work at a community health center I work specifically at Atlantic Health System Overlook Medical Center where I have a lot of patients who are concerned specifically about women's rights they're concerned about access to IVF birth control Family Planning Reproductive Rights in general what is your healthare policy going to change Andor protect for those individuals well I'll start with the I think very important point that must be spoken which is I I trust women I trust women to know what they need to ask for what they need and to be able to make decisions about what they need in their best interest and not have their government tell them what to do and and so I start with that and then doing everything in my power to ensure that women have the freedom to make those decisions unencumbered by the kinds of laws that we've seen been passed since Donald Trump upended R verso's weight um I also believe it's very important that women have dignity in the Health Care system and that they are taken seriously and so that is um reproductive care but that in general is Women's Health Care you know my mother was actually a breast cancer researcher so I grew up with a mother who was fighting constantly for the rights and dignity of women in the Health Care system and it's obviously work that is still in progress in terms of ensuring that women have um access to the resources they need to make the decisions that are in the best interest of their health and well-being how does that tie into the topic of the fact that in the United States we're at the top of the list at Healthcare spending and yet we're not anywhere near the top of the list when it comes to issues like maternal mortality infant mortality any plans on that healthare policy front yes absolutely and actually um for example uh maternal Health policy uh it's work that I've been doing for years actually since I was in the United States Senate focused on what we need to do to get more resources to women and to healthc care providers to provide prenatal Pregnancy Care postpartum care because to your point we have the sad distinction as the United States of America of having one of the highest highest maternal mortality rates of any so-called wealthy nation and when you break it down demographically black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with child birth Native American women are one are twice as likely uh rural women one and a half times likely and it's a combination of issues that include especially for black women racial bias in the healthc care delivery system um and native women but also for Rural women and all women just having access to the care they need meaning having clinics that are accessible to them that are that are in their area geographic area you know we have maternal Health Care deserts in America meaning women have to travel for miles and miles to get the health care they need and God help them if they have a car or have you know the gas money or have time to to stay go from work and and paid sick leave to be able to go from work and get that kind of Health Care so it's a big issue glad is on the resources we've got to put into it in terms of federal resources but also creating a priority in terms of I've always used my platform as a way to elevate the issue to to then also challenge States and local governments to do more and specifically I can talk about the fact that on postpartum care um I when I became vice president took a look at what the states were providing and through Medicaid they were only providing two months of postpartum care only three of them and I then issued a challenge to all states to extend Medicaid coverage for 12 months for postpartum care and now by last count 46 states have done it yeah I'm glad to hear that you're thinking about it from a systemic Viewpoint not just from a medical Viewpoint it's always exciting to have medical breakthroughs but it's really these systemic changes that create barriers for my patients as you said about transportation of getting to their appointments having Clinic availability feeling safe in the clinic at which they attend so great to hear that those are all important issues for you uh I did hear some concerning news that there could be a situation where an individual like RFK Jr ends up at the head of a major Health Organization like HHS CDC FDA I cannot say how concerning it is to use the the words Lightly for me as a primary care physician to have someone who is has spoken anti-science rhetoric in the past uh denial of a HIV infections uh antivaccine stances to be mentioned in that space uh is that concerning for you and how would you imagine that would play out in the reproductive space well first of all it's not going to happen because I intend to win this election let's start with that and that is one of the reasons why I'm working so hard because I know the stakes so Donald Trump has indicated that he would have RFK um run with Women's Health policy and we know to your point how that he has been very um well you've said it best and you're the medical professional it it has not been helpful to the to the medical profession to have him talk about healthc care the way he does so I'm going to win the election but it's going to be because everybody gets out and vote and they know what is at stake and that includes not only that issue of who's running women's health for the the federal government but also the Affordable Care Act Donald Trump had tried to get rid of it dozens of times when he was president he intends to get rid of it again that would cause millions and millions of people to lose their health care insurance it could go back to a time when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions as you know that meant breast cancer survivors it meant pregnancy was a pre-existing condition by the way right um so these are all the things that are directly at risk because of this election and um and these are the reasons that I'm fighting to make sure that we win I also like to think about lifestyle factors that play a role in my patients health so getting patients to eat a whole food diet has been rather tricky due to pricing due to food deserts and I see young children overc consuming ultr processed foods uh like lunch le as a prime example that's gone viral on social media and as a result we're seeing record rates of obesity that are setting them up Up For Worse Health outcomes down the line are are there any plans to perhaps bring down prices of these Whole Foods groceries making sure that they're widely available even in areas where there may not be right now well one of one area of focus for me is without any question in fact it's my highest priority is bringing down the cost of living period which includes the cost of groceries one area of focus for me has been uh what we can do around price gouging as an example corporate price gouging and as you know you probably have a lot of people who watch you who live in those states that were affected by Hurricane hen um and and Milton and what I have experienced as a former Attorney General of California is during these extreme emergency situations there are predatory practices including jacking up prices for things like food um to take advantage of people who are in distress so that's an area of focus and then the work that we have to do is also just um making sure that we have expanded access to things like affordable child care um knowing that when a a parent it has to worry about having food on the table healthy food on the table paying rent taking care of the other bills um it can be overwhelming and and child care is far too expensive in our country right now my plan includes Bringing Down the cost of child care and also expanding the child tax credit to $6,000 which um among many things will focus on the first year of a child's life and doing what we can to help those young parents again take care of basic needs for their child during a fundamental phase of their development do you see a role uh for any of the federal or state or local programs to create a program to fund healthy foods as medicine do you see that as a potential priority of your health policy I think that it is critically important that we to your point see the direct connection between a healthy diet and health outcomes and at this point I think it should not be debated by anyone I hope it it is not it is about then dealing with the problem because we know the solution and so that's again about targeted resources for specific communities that need that kind of assistance and I know you're thinking outside of the box uh because I've seen your stance on getting insulin prices down capping the amount of uh money one can spend on prescription drugs I have in my career in particular starting as attorney general taken on big Pharma the big pharmaceutical companies who um and when they actually are putting profit over the health of the people that they should be helping and doing it in a way that it becomes prohibitive which is that people who need medication to save their lives um just can't afford it I believe that access to healthc care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it so that includes taking on the big pharmaceutical companies when they are violating basic principles it it also includes allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and by doing that we then allow um us to not only bring down the cost of medication for the individual but we also then bring down the cost to the taxpayer so there are many benefits and I think that's the point that I'll probably close on which is that every one benefits from each individual having access to health care I don't think people fully understand the burden that it places on everyone because we're going to pay for it it'll be in the emergency room and you know I hope that we don't think about this in that regard I hope we think about it from the perspective of just what is in the best interest of humanity and a morally right which is that we don't want anyone to suffer from poor health from cute illness um but understand we all pay the price one way or another when our fellow person is um unable to get the care they need thank you so much Madam vice president your platform thank you stay happy and healthy okay and you thank you take care never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd get to speak to the vice president of the United States click here for the story of how I immigrated to the United States when I was just six years old and as always stay happy and healthy

Dr.

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