Coronavirus Q&A with Derek Kilmer

To help them with rental assistance so go ahead. Do you see a question up there? Derek Well, we had a few questions related to unemployment and how folks can file for unemployment and some of the challenges with it and it maybe I'll take first crack at this. You know I'm one incredibly sympathetic to the folks who are dealing with that. Obviously, you know we've had a lot of folks who've lost their job and it's not their fault. It's because of this virus and that's part of the reason. In the Cares Act, that was expanded unemployment insurance to provide additional money at 600 an additional 600 bucks per week for the next four months to provide an additional 13 weeks of federally funded benefits and to allow folks who didn't previously qualify for unemployment assistance, Part-time workers or self-employed workers, gig economy and workers to access of those benefits. folks may have specific questions about you know how to sign up and where to get information and how to keep up to date and I guess the best guy. I can give you one earlier this month, I did a Facebook Q and a with our state Employment Security Commissioner Susie Levine you can check that out she recommended four steps to ensure folks keep up to date one on the employment security website and you can sign up for their covid- 19 action alerts. so you know what you need to know to access benefits a second. there's eligibility checker to help you better understand what. You may be eligible for and when to apply a third, you can download the application checklist find out if you're eligible for unemployment benefits if you're unable to work because of this virus and then fourth, you can set up the your secure access Washington account to get access to the online evi this week. Employment security is expecting nearly a million weekly claims just for this week. they've they've recommended three things. For folks who have who have trouble getting through on the Web page one, they said If you can file on a different day, that's a big ask, but it might help a neighbor in need if you can afford to wait a day or two to get paid and and you can file after Monday's Mondays are usually the busiest day that will allow those who need the benefit the most to file and get paid first and second they recommend filing late at night or early in the morning. you can file online and by phone 24 seven traffic is. Late at night to early in the morning and then the final thing that they've suggested is just try submitting on the phone and off hours you can submit your claim by the automated phone system after six PM and let me see we have a phone number. It's eight hundred 318 six zero two and we'll push that out on our social media as well for folks and so this is our first. we have a bunch of questions on that. Do you wanna take one Sure well also. People to know it's employment Security Department of ESD dot WA dot Gov. If you want the website, the other thing I know Commissioner Levine has really wanted people to know is that this will not run out of money. It's not like the PPP so she wants you to relax and knowing that the money will be there and she also wants you to know that the benefits are retroactive to when you became eligible. So if you can't get the. And it takes you even a couple of weeks those weeks that you were trying. you will get a bigger first check to cover that and I think that's really important and then this extra $600 a week is for the first four months of the program. So we we did what we could to try to help make people as close as possible to I got a question about that, though this is from somebody named Matt, who said, the extra $600 bonus on unemployment means that families will have to pay more for health care if they're buying it on the Exchange and I thought that was a really. Important points because it's kind of artificially bumps up your income when you don't really have that income for more than four months. So I think that's something we need to consider as we do more legislation about whether it's better instead to have this cash payments. go out. So if you are an employed, you get that you know the $1200 check instead of the extra money unemployment. I think we we should ponder a way to do that. so we don't penalize people I. I have a question here about about pediatricians. so why don't I take that one and I'll kick it back to you? Derek this one says why pediatricians been excluded from the stimulus package and so I wanna sort of convey some of some of the issues the pediatricians are going through, but they really parallel with all kinds of doctors are going through that. At the same time we are seeing doctors exhausted overworked you know just falling apart. New-york We have a lot of doctors who aren't in the emergency Department or a hospitalist who are not able to keep busy pediatricians are finding the families are afraid to come in. they don't wanna take their children in put themselves the grandparents the kids at risk for getting sick and so while they are doing some telemedicine because we've made changes in that program, they're really finding that they have staff to pay they rent to pay and what are they gonna do Will they go out of business and so more finding this with. all kinds of practices and they are eligible for a couple of things one is certainly to get some of that health care money and the other is that the P program that paycheck protection program is also meant for clinics like this. The other thing we're hearing is from children's hospitals. children are happily less profoundly impacted as far as we know by Cogan and and so people would think Oh well. children's hospitals don't need any help, but the reality is that any. A child comes in with a cough or a fever they have to put on the same gown, gloves and personal protective equipment, so they are going through just as much of this as some of the the big city hospitals, we're hearing about so those are some of the resources for pediatricians and thanks for asking. Alright Derek go ahead. Do you have another one Well so one. I'm just gonna do a quick pitch speaking of pediatricians on Friday at 10 o 'clock. I'm doing a kid's town Hall where we're taking questions from kids all out. Washingtons Sixth district and I'll answer some of them, but I've got a pediatrician who's joining me to answer any of the health-related ones. So this Friday at 10 o 'clock I have a question from Jeff in Port Orchard. He asked. I'm currently paying back taxes and would like to know if the $1200 check. I'm set to receive will automatically be applied to what I already owe or if I'll be able to keep the money thanks Jeff though the IRS can in some cases, garnish wages to fulfill an outstanding tax debt. the good news for you and. Others is that you're you're rebate payment is exempt from IRS garnishment and the reason for that is that this money is supposed to provide relief to folks who are impacted by this current crisis and so to provide that payment and then just take it back kind of defeats the purpose there are some instances including child support where the assistance may be garnished. our and I raised this with the governor yesterday and he reminded me he is. An executive order on this that suspends any sort of statutes that permit collection of consumer debt judgments, including wage Garnishments, so in the state of Washington because of that executive order, it's also exempt exempt from debt collection. So thanks for the question. Jeff it's a great question. I have a question here about the stay at home order and specifically it says. What's your opinion of the stay-at-home order now that the Curve is flattening hospitals aren't overrun. Why are we keeping the order in place and I think a lot of people have that on their minds so first of all we're we're at a bit of a plateau right now, which is interesting. I would have expected to see more of a decrease in numbers of new cases with everybody who can really staying home. I mean if you think of this as you know close to the more extreme measures that we could do with only essential. Is open most people staying at home. We're still getting 200 300, sometimes more than that new cases a day, and we're not seeing a really pronounced steady decline and one of the prerequisites for really loosening restrictions is to see a consistent decline over 14 days and the numbers of new cases. So I think a lot of us are concerned that even with these measures in place, we're not seeing a dramatic drop and we can be guarantee that as we loosen up the numbers will go up. so here's the other. Concern or hospital workers, they still don't have enough and 95 masks gowns. gloves tests everything else they need to keep themselves and to keep patients safe and we mean we need to make sure that we don't set ourselves up for another surge that puts everybody at risk, including people who need to get to the hospital for other reasons but have all beds taken so this will be a gradual tiptoe out. this is not gonna be a snap fingers back to normal and I. Our governor is doing a phenomenal job of looking at the numbers and looking at the science and really guiding the state and that's why we've had far fewer deaths than other States and every one of them is lamentable and horrible. but boy it could have been a whole lot. worse go ahead. Derek. I think you have another. I got a question from Sherry Import Angeles and she asked are we gonna have and I may actually invite you doctor Scherer since you're on the egg Committee. If you wanna weigh in here, she said. We're gonna have food. You know, beef and chicken and pork I've seen news reports of vegetables being plowed under I can't I can't stand lack of food at the grocery stores. What can you tell me? I know that is a concern and I'll let you chime in as well, but you know the bottom line. That's something that we're that is a fast evolving situation. our state delegation did a call with Secretary of Agriculture earlier this week. we did a Facebook live last week with the folks from Northwest Harvest you. Farmers don't want to waste this food either. It's their life's work and they take pride in what they do to feed Americas. So obviously we've talked to a lot of them. They're doing what they can by donating some of their crops. you know, sometimes they're just isn't out that when the when the supply chains are down so that's something I know many of us are dialed into maybe Doctor Scheer. If you wanna share what you're hearing from the standpoint of the AG Committee. Yeah. Thank you. This is such a great question and and I think this needs to be more in the public discussion because this is just such a heartbreak that at a time when so many people in our country are going hungry when food banks have lines around the block when school lunches are in higher demand than ever that we're hearing about meat processing plants shutting down about hogs being euthanized about tomato farms in Florida, closing and now. We're coming up on a cherry and then Apple season here in Washington State and we're looking at a real crisis in the making as our guest workers prepare to come up from Mexico and if we can't get those workers safely here and protect their health, those apples and cherries will rot on the trees are farmers will go under and there was a assistance and a cares act for agriculture, but it really doesn't even come close to the need. in fact, this is like using a tape. To get water out of a sinking boat what was put in was about a nine point, five billion dollars that translates basically to a you are a farmer who's experiencing losses. The most you can get for crop is a hundred and 20 - $5000 and if you think about an Apple farmer who is barely making it by, but it's functioning in the millions of dollars that money is not going to pay for the workers. It's not gonna pay for health care for workers who get Co so we. Are working on a program called Farm to Food Bank, which will have boxes of food going straight from farms to food banks and then be handed to people. It's still it is not quite enough and I am joining with several members of the AG Committee to to vastly increase the amount of money to help rescue our farmers to 60 billion dollars or more because food security is really a matter of National security and right now, we should be all really grateful that this country has the resources to feed every person in this country. Thanks for the question and buy veggies when you go to the store, Amen and Michelle from Tacoma as I'm scheduled to take a trip to Cabo in July, his travel to Mexico and we'll be restricted. first of all Michelle. I'm very jealous Cabos sounds a little hot but wonderful in terms of answering your question. it's a little early to tell here's what you should consider though right now, the CDC is recommending that travelers avoid all non-essential. Travel because of this pandemic Doctor Schreiner mentioned that we were on a plane last week. Honestly, it was creepy. you know it was it was even with the copious amounts of hand sanitizer and Lysol disinfectant wipes and Clorox wipes and and wearing masks it was still a little bit stressful for for folks getting on that plane on top of that, I think it's important to note that you know as we look around the world, there's some health care systems that are really overwhelmed right now they may have limited. Access to medical care and some of these affected areas many countries are implementing travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines and closing borders and prohibiting non citizens from entering their country. Airlines have cancelled a whole bunch of international flights when we were leaving Washington, DC Kim and I sat in front of the departure board and took a picture of it because I would say 80 percent at least of the flights were were cancelled, so travels also Super unpredictable right now. You should just know if you if you do choose to travel internationally, you travel plans may be disrupted. You may have to remain you may get stuck outside the United States for a long period of time, the only other thing that I would mention the State Department has a website. That's just travel dot State dot Gov and it can provide some guidance to you before traveling anywhere outside of the United States, my time if you want, Oh, yeah. Well, I'm gonna be Super short here and very direct. don't go. I think it's a really lousy idea. the more we travel the more we. Spread this disease around the planet If you go to Mexico and you get stuck there and you need to be in ICU. you're gonna be in an ICU in Mexico and if you get this disease, you're gonna be quarantining there for two to three weeks so just stay home. Do it next time? Cancel your flight Airlines are reimbursing just don't do it sorry to be a downer but when Doctor Scherer hey, that's why we ask the doctor. No way. No. How did you have any other questions? I got. I got one more but I'm I'm I wanna make sure get to your constituents too. you know. I think we can probably get both so why not. I have one here that says, what is Kim think about testing everyone regardless of symptoms and how can we distribute testing more widely or more broadly testing everyone regardless of symptoms. It's not the greatest idea because the tests performed best when they're done on people with symptoms. It's something called positive predictive value so what I would suggest is doing this surveillance where we just kind of test kinda. Randomly through the population and get a sense of where hot spots are to just test everybody at once they could develop symptoms later they can get exposed the next day. It doesn't work quite as well. Alright, Derek Go ahead with your question. Riley asked. Will there be another distribution of funds to individuals? it's certainly under discussion right now? Riley I think the the first round of eBay. part of the rational was to help people pay the bills you know people are really strained as a consequence of the financial impacts at this virus and most of the constituents I've been hearing from said this is super helpful this might give me through the month happens next month and so it's absolutely part of the conversation for next month when we talked about automatic trip triggers are stabilisers that's really part of the conversation and what we are talking about if we still have certain conditions it may make sense Another round of direct support to individuals that may make sense to provide additional support to hospitals to state and local governments and to others. I would agree, I think that all of these things are on the table and I know that even initially in the negotiations for the first one of the things we ask for is just to have regular payments so it would not be a one time thing anticipating that this could be long live and and just know that we're going to be for other things too like to make sure that when we do have a vaccine, we can produce it at scale that it's distributed equitably and fairly and that it is free for everyone so know that that is coming up in the future legislation as well. Thank you. Much Derek for being with me today on Facebook live, I hope it's been fun for you. It's been great for me to see your face to face. I see the beard is gone. The beard is gone. My kids are very happy. They looks good. your daughters did the haircut right? my daughter's cut my hair. Yeah. I'd like to thank the people of YouTube for putting that information on the Internet. That's excellent. My my husband is threatening to cut mine that I haven't. I haven't let him go for it yet. We're getting close. Alright, really really nice to have you on Facebook live today and everybody out there. please take care. be safe. Keep your social distance and wear a mask when you can't be feet away from people. Thanks everybody. take care. See you soon.