 One heart Queen of clubs Three of spades nine of heart Jack of spades Six of clubs Three of heart Five of heart What are you guys playing? Coles Yeah, bingo. It's like you know cars. We all pay a dime And whoever finishes that cards first gets them. I like that color. Here we go. It's really cool. Thank you All right, wait a minute You ready? Let's go. I'm ready. Five of clubs Jack of clubs eight of heart Two of diamonds Good morning. How you doing? I'm doing fine. I am one of the very fortunate people in the world because I worked for uvm for 21 years And they gave me health insurance when I left So I have good health insurance, but I know a lot of people don't But i'm very blessed because I haven't had to pay for Are they anything except my prescriptions? And What about your prescriptions? Are they expensive? Well, they're expensive, but I only have to pay a deductible Mostly I pay $15 a prescription so I I talked to a woman this morning and her son's son Broke his leg and they had to go to the bank to get a loan for $6,000 to pay for the leg And that's awful when the insurance won't it was blue cross that wouldn't give them the money and that's awful So I've seen both sides So Linda Why did you have recent health care? Right? You were in the hospital. Tell us about it and whether you were covered by insurance I went to the emergency room and they found out I had a 100 gallstones in my gallbladder and my gallbladder was leaky So they took this test. Oh, they didn't take it Only until april So I've had this problem for quite a long time And as far as healthcare is concerned, I have medicare I don't have any other coverage And I was very fortunate that while I was in the hospital a lady came in and helped me pay this bill by filling out information And I didn't do that myself A lady from church who came to help me she brought me food for five weeks because I couldn't go well And she helped me do all the paperwork and everything got paid I was very fortunate, you know what I mean? So Health care is important Because if you have symptoms your body's telling you Pay attention to me Get help But a lot of people ignore symptoms and you have them for a reason, you know And um I don't know what else to say except it's important What kind of health care system would you like to say? For everyone That people are covered like through medicare and Medicaid They shouldn't cut Medicaid and some of the Senators now are saying they want to cut Medicaid Well, they shouldn't cut Medicaid because a lot of people can't afford The other insurance That's sort of what I think I have medicare and I have blue cross So blue cross supplements Medicare, right great medicare. What does medicare pay 80% no they pay about 30% They hardly pay anything They they'll pay like 37 dollars for our office visit Well, office visits cost at least 150 And they don't pay they don't pay their share So I think people should be able to go to a hospital or the doctors at any given time For health care. I don't think in this day and age people should have to die from something But there's such so much technology today to save people's lives And if you go when something is hurting you early on that's very important because some diseases progress rapidly you know and um I think the door should stay open. I You know really for everybody So you were saying we have to have health care and go from there and start again All well seniors and children Have to have health care. It doesn't matter how much money you have or how little money you have and um My solution to the problem is that medical school should be free And we should have people going into medicine who are interested in taking care of people Right now they pay so much to get through college through medical school through a specialty And and then they have to pay that back. So that makes medicine very expensive and I really think that medical school should be free And I think doctors when they come out of medical school then if it's free they should Go into the rural areas where there's not enough Doctors and practice for x number of years like an internship and then they can go on to their specialty But medicine shouldn't be a way to make money Hi, I'm brian chena. I'm a state representative from burlington representing house district Chittenden six four, which is most of the hill the hospital party uvm Centennial field and a piece of the old north end And i'm here today to hear from our elders I'm curious to hear what their concerns are regarding health care. I serve on the house health care committee And we've been doing a lot of work monitoring what's happening in washington and Monitoring what protections we might need to put into place if there were changes to the affordable care act and So i'm curious to hear you know I'm here really to listen to our elders and to hear their voices and hear their concerns and answer any questions They might have and also to reassure them that we're going to fight for them to continue to get their benefits in their health care Thank you for your attention The reason that we want to speak with you today is that There is a serious threat that many of us are under and that is I think a serious threat for seniors, especially of cuts to medicaid and medicare and What the national republican party has tried to do to health care in this country Um, so just a quick question. How many people in this room? In some way use medicaid Medicare everybody Okay, you've been organizing On a local level to pressure our governor phil scott To stand up publicly and push back against the national republican attacks on health care And we've had some success in pushing him to take a stronger stance and stand up for the health of brahmans We don't want to just stand here and talk at you the whole time Mostly what we wanted to do was to be able to listen and hear stories and experiences of the people in this room and and learn from you as to What benefits you've gotten from the current health care system and what are your concerns? But we know there's a lot of threats still to health care both the affordable care act medicaid and medicare Um, there are plans by republicans in the house representatives that would turn medicare into a voucher So they would hand you a voucher for x number of dollars that we know is not enough money to actually cover the care you need They also want to turn medicaid into a block grant program So a state would only get a certain amount of money and the reason they're doing that is to make cuts So we know that vermont, for example, wouldn't have the money they need to take care of our current medicaid medicaid population So isaq asked you how many of you rely on medicaid and medicare My other question is how many of you use the community health centers of burlington for your health care Community health center So the community health center burlington is a federally qualified health center They get funding from the federal government in order to operate They work on a sliding fee scale so you can get coverage regardless of your ability to pay One in four vermonas, which is the most of any state in the country one in four vermonas get their health care from a federally qualified health center senator sanders has been One of the biggest supporters in washington of that program and he wants to expand it actually Doubling the number of people who can access health centers for their care which provide high quality low-cost primary care services And This health center was pushed by bernie to be here Which i'm very grateful because i use it But i also heard that there was supposed to be another one that he was going to try to get further in like A different location you mean yeah A second one. I see so you are and i heard that a few years ago Okay, so senator sanders role is really to make sure that there's funding available so that health centers can open Marsha, there is another one Yes, i've passed days down You know where staples is yeah down around in that area. Oh, it is and there's also one for um teenage teams Homeless teams, which i think is on pearl street Burlington has like five locations now. So there's riverside. There's the one on pearl street. There's one on pine street I don't know a lot of people in top Yes, and yeah, there is one like near her house. Oh good I don't really have a question. I have kind of a statement First of all, I don't think that medicare and medicaid provide enough services for people And I think that needs to be increased And my one of the ways it would seem that we could help Our healthcare be cheaper is to make it cheaper for the doctors to become doctors And maybe we should have an organization who Sponsors doctors and then they go out and work so many years before they start their specialty And so that they don't have this huge debt And um There was one other thing and it slipped my mind, but It has to do with Dental I think because I really think dental is as important If you get dental infections, you're prone to get heart problems and all kinds of things So I really think dental is a very important thing And that's I guess what I was going to say something else that I forgot At the universal healthcare classes will Washington senators and congressmen be paying the same As us we could save a lot of money there. They should be on the same program. We are So members of congress right now Oh, sorry Members of congress right now receive FBHB P which is the federal employee insurance benefit So they get their coverage through Blue Cross or united healthcare or other things that federal employees are subject to To make us feel like when we get our Medicare Benefits That's something we've purchased through the years. We've worked for that And we're made to feel like it's a freebie and it's a handout and Oh, you don't deserve this. You should be happy with whatever you get Uh, and that's not true. We we've paid into it They they should be made to live on social security for one month The 40s and 50s we worked at 13 So from from the age of 13 until the age of 66 I paid into social security And and these benefits that I should be getting and I do not wish to see any of those cuts Could you talk a bit more about prescription drugs and what what is possible because right now Unless you have supplementary insurance you pay a fortune Oh, sorry No So they are under Medicaid and Medicare. So they do not pay anything So is is this different with the Americans who is already here like He's born here that they have to pay even if they have Medicare or Medicare So Medicare is something that you pay into as you're working and then when you turn 65 you have access to benefits No, those you mean and then okay and Medicaid can if you're if you're low income if you have income eligibility Medicaid can sort of fill in the difference So right now if you have Medicare There's typically a there's a A monthly premium that you pay And there's also usually about a 20% co-insurance for certain services So you can buy for an additional cost supplemental insurance But you're still even once you Earns the benefit you're still paying every month and then you're paying additionally for the services I know they do not have question because they do not have to pay anything I don't just to pay anything too. There are yeah Yeah, well, I pay a dollar or two dollars Yeah Yeah, there's a lot of seniors that are low income that don't have to pay more than a dollar or two I have a question for them I have a question for the elders So what i'm hearing is that you currently don't have to pay anything Just you know, I'm Brian Sheena. I'm a representative on the state level. I'm in the health care committee What helps us Is when we can tell stories To to prove why we need things And I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how it would affect you if you lost your health care benefits In any way, and maybe what you're currently getting what kind of services are you currently getting that make improve your life So He's saying that We're very difficult for them because they're doing a lot of money What kind of care does medicaid allow you to There is a limit of 500 dollars which I know and then for dental and if they risk 500 they have to pay extra So She's saying that she's under medication. So she has to take like three There are different types of medications like she after she goes from here She has to take three medications and after that they she has to take Because she does have oxygen as well and if the medicaid is not there then she like Well, aren't we in vermont, I think we're one of the better places because we've had Medicaid and medicare You know my entire life. So I think that what's going to be sad is Low income. I don't know about immigrants. What they're going to do about that But low income people the less you have it's not going to really affect me But it's going to affect people that are like in the middle and that's not okay I think low income folks are also would be under threat if there are major cuts Yeah, so I think one of the challenges is The reason vermont is able to cover as many people with medicaid as we do is because we get funding from the federal government Yeah, and that's and so when that is cut if the middle class people will get no low income people Because if the federal government only gives us a certain it's the state of vermont a certain pot of money And says you guys need to figure this out The state is going to have to make choices as to who gets care and who doesn't Unfortunately, there's there are these uncertainties because of the national picture So, I mean it's just it's good that we're like hearing this and That I think that people stay involved is really crucial One thing I want to mention which I'll pass out is we just have Pretty simple like healthcare cards where we're collecting stories from folks which can be used to both pressure governor scott and legislators to help move forward with statewide programs like universal primary care And to to figure out how we can actually move toward a more universal and accessible healthcare system in the state of vermont It's there's more politically possible here than in the national picture So I would uh love to have anyone who has a story they want to share To actually put it down on one of these cards and we can follow up and continue the conversation and keep organizing to protect what we do have I think I heard that lunch is going to be served soon, but I want to address your question about drug pricing Sorry So there are many solutions to lower the drug prices here in the us a couple of the senator As we work really hard on our importation of lower-cost drugs from canada and other countries Canadian government About 40% less person than the usb And it's the same exact drugs and you know, canada is so close to here in so many other states in the country Be very simple to get the drugs here. So the senator has a bill to do that another policy would be to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices within the Fishery drug benefit program within medicare which could draft the lower prices as well For those of us who um Do have chronic illness I hit the the donut bowl early in the early summer Fortunately, I am on a state plan That helps me I'm proud I hate to say i'm on welfare, but as soon as you get a vermont state Fireman the v farm house Here consider medicare I still have my own home. I pay out I'm on very limited income And I pay out About 25% of my income in medical with medicare and Planned with a aarp that I don't have any deductibles because I find in the long run that is saving me a lot more money With no deductibles. No co-pays I I have some co-pays with the state But by staying in my own home, I'm not being subsidized in housing I'm saving the government money there How is that going to affect people like us? who Are fortunate I wouldn't be able to live If I couldn't have my own home Because I wouldn't be able to afford housing anywhere with taxes and And maintenance and all that goes without My lawn hasn't been mowed in three weeks because I had surgery on my hand and I can't pull the cord on the lawn more anymore So there's those services that we still have to maintain And how is that going to affect us?