Hi I'm meg walsh and ready for state Senate district five here in williamson County which also includes nine other counties. I'm here with doctor christine man of a very close friend of mine who is practicing medicine here in cedar Park and very glad to have you thank you so much for being here and as you can, if you could tell us a little bit about what's important to you related to medicine here in Texas, absolutely so I would say that the number one thing that I'm concerned with is access through medicaid um the Texas state Legislature decided not to expand medicaid access when the option was available if you Years ago and we need to elect people into office like meg who will vote to expand medicaid, because we have millions of people who are have no access. Um not just in Texas but across the country. Um we're leaving money on the table and we are leaving people out in the cold as far as health care is concerned, especially people who are vulnerable vulnerable and um have issues with access anyway um the The access to medicaid was advocated for by the entire position community hospital systems, doctors, the medical associations, all try to get the Legislature to advocate her to accept that medicaid expansion and um were unsuccessful. Unfortunately, so we're continuing to try to get that expansion going on and um the best way we can do it is to get people in office who will vote in favor of um expansion of medicaid so that's the number one thing that I see is um accessibility issues that I think that we We also need to really talk about the maternal mortality rate in Texas, especially as it relates to women of color um. We have a terrible maternal mortality rate in magazines talked about it quite frequently on the campaign trail and um there's research ongoing as to why that exists. Why do we have this morning maternal mortality rate and um. You know, research is fantastic that we need solutions. We need to have legislators who Will push to find answers who will push to create solutions and you will bring us into the 20 first century and not have this um is similar to. Furthermore, the whole country for people of color yes and what I say is, we you know all texans deserve to have access to good medical care there's, nine billion dollars per year, that are left on the table that our income taxes are paying for in those dollars are going to California rhode island Louisiana, so we need to make sure that those dollars are state here in Texas in our local economy, um one of the things I've noticed as you have issues here and um you know williamson County or you'll have suburban or urban counties, but it is just so much worse in your rural counties, one of my county's doesn't, even have a hospital with emergency. Sir, you know emergency room services so they have to literally drive to another County so um definitely that's a good point to bring up about the world counties um the medical community has been looking at that issue for quite a while um. How can we make access better in communities that Don't have large populations, um because that's an area where people do die because they can't get to a facility on time. Um. There are experiments going on with tela doc and uh remote care um for those communities and you know, having Legislature like man who will work to get that access into those communities is critical for those other counties that don't have the kind of access that we do here in williamson County definitely Definitely, and um I think we need to the one of the problems that is also a parent is this whole aspect of the um high cost of medicine and I've been out on the campaign trail on that. Many people that their prescription medicine is so high that they have to choose between their light bill food and paying for their prescriptions so what do you think is uh you know what what are your thoughts on a great idea to address that issue uh whether it's nationally or um, you In Texas, there are so many ways that that can be changed and um collective bargaining is one of the ways like in Texas. For instance, there are groups who are looking at trying to have a um Medicare type system that would cover everybody in Texas and with that bargaining power with the state as largest Texas. You can get for companies to bring the costs down um. You could take that plan nationally, which is something that I'm in favor of Um you can re import drugs from out of the country, um you can have an emphasis on um having generic drugs get through the process of um uh regulation. Much more quickly. Um there are there are a variety of solutions and you know I see that problem in my practice everyday people are asking me what am I gonna do. I can't get this medicine anymore. I can't afford it um so it's something that is very real and that has been a lot of time helping patients with right and that's. You know really devastating You hear that someone in the recipe between food or their light bill and then their medicine. Um the other thing I was gonna ask you about is the closure of um women's health clinics. Our family planning clinics for a hundred and 50000 Texas, women and I know you mention the return of mortality rate and I believe there's, a huge correlation between that and overall, what have you noticed as a physician, you know when these clinics close. How did it impact the people on the community, whether it's williamson County or just you know generally here in Texas um that Process has been so upsetting to me because the information of the data that was used to create the laws that led to the closure of those clinics is not based on science. Real research for data of any kind. Um and unfortunately the state representative of the state, senator that I have now doctor who is your opponent. Yes, is a physician and yet he sponsoring rural legislation that was not based on data, not based on science in any way And I find that unacceptable. Um it goes beyond just access to your family planning, though I have patients who cannot access birth control. Uh because they're health plan is run by um communities that don't agree. But access to birth control so, if there are all these different layers of of how these um rules and laws are affecting people and um in With the doctor patient relationship, yes, um and putting people in a position where they cannot access the things that I think that they need for them right right and again. We wanna make sure that texans are healthy and I know Texas is it see the believe is number 49 in the nation in terms of number of texans covered and also quality of health care, so how do you feel like that affects all of Texas weather there. You know texans ability to go to work or live their lives. I mean you know how does that Overall, you know what kind of effect do you feel that has in terms of just what you see with your patients for it's it's another multi layer issue. Um when people go without care and then get care later and they come in to my office and they have had diabetes. That has not been treated for a couple of years and I can get there, sugar back under control but I can't go back and erase the damage that has been done on the nerve damage and um blindness and kidney damage from those years of um lack of access to care and that ends up costing the state more money because then We're treating those people for things that could have prevented had they had access to care all along um people who are of healthy and don't have access to care and up using emergency room for care right. Um and that costs us more money than it would um people who can't uh go to a job because they don't have their health um issues uh covered it cost all of society when people can't be productive in the way that they would like to be, because of lack of access Is to care right and that actually you know creates again. You know people are not adding to society and then they're having to reliant um other so that creates the whole aspect. There. Um is there anything else. Um and this is there anything else that you know is important to you. That you would like folks to know as we go out on the campaign drill yeah. I think um first and foremost I would say that um family physicians are on your side it's the one specialty where uh the majority of us want two expand access and make sure that patients get the care that they need. Um but we can't do it alone. We've been trying to affect the change at the legislative level. We need all of you to elect people vote for people who will help us as physicians, help you, as patients and um uh, if we, if we don't make a significant change in this next election in November, um, I think that there's a A real risk for a lot of people that things will get worse. I hear murder rings that restrictions will get greater uh in terms of access to care. Um more and more people are gonna fall through the cracks and so um alot of doctors try to stay out of the political arena, but I gotta tell you that kind of change in the last couple of years and I see many of my fellow physicians who are stepping up and advocate for patient's um entering into some political races Talking online about what we think needs to be done. Uh but the bottom line is that we need to elect people who will vote for health care. Expansion. Um and greater access and instead of district five meg is your candidate for that. Well, I certainly appreciate your time and my name is meg walsh for state Senate district five, if you'd like to find out more about my campaign, go to dot walsh for Texas dot com and we'd love. It if you want Sign up for block walking. We would love it of course, please vote early. Voting is October. 22 to November two which is my birthday. So give me the best birthday present ever and vote for me and then election day is November six. So, signing off from the campaign trail. Thank you so much christine and appreciate all that you do if you're in the community. Thank you