 Good afternoon. Welcome to think tech Hawaii's movers shakers and reformers politics in Hawaii series. I'm your host Karl Kampania Next year is an election year Not a big election year, but it's an election year We've had a number of candidates that are going to be I think potentially swapping seats in a number of different ways It's going to be a fascinating year. I think Please welcome. I'm very excited to welcome my guest today current senator Josh Green Welcome to the show. Thank you, Carl. Appreciate it So I bring all of that up because There has been not just speculation, but conversation about senator Josh Green running for lieutenant governor So I invited her down to the show to talk about that and his interests and and and so forth So again, welcome to the show. Glad you can join us start off Please by telling us a bit about yourself. You you're a doctor first of all. Yes, okay. Tell us about that Sure, how long we've been a doctor. What do you do? So I'm an emergency room doctor. Okay in truth I'm not a career politician. I'm a local physician. I came to Hawaii in 2000 with the national health corps I had a national health corps scholarship which meant that there was no doctor on the big island in the southern part in Ka'u and I received a Scholarship to come and be the doctor in Ka'u. So after graduating medical school I had gone and worked in medical missions. I had experienced health care abroad in Africa I wanted to go and make a difference. So when I got that posting I became the doc for 8,000 people in the Ka'u district and during that time as a doctor for four years at first in the national health corps It was an incredible way to begin to experience Hawaii I was the only health care provider for many miles around 5,000 square miles all the way up towards Volcano and through ocean view on the big island. So if you're ever going to be immersed in a culture That's one of the most incredible ways to do it. So I saw the struggles that people were facing I immediately became immersed in Hawaiian culture in Ka'u on Big Island I had a ton of friends and new family that were an I family and Filipino families that took me in and Japanese families and I ultimately met my wife shortly thereafter. So all of that changed my life to be a doctor there I also work emergency medicine. So I was a family doctor trained in Pennsylvania I went to med school back in the east and then when I came here I did both the clinic work at the community health center on Big Island and also ER, which is what I do now So being a physician, I saw the crystal methamphetamine Addiction crisis. I saw that firsthand. I saw children that would die because of neglect I saw the rampant diabetes and I began to understand what the people were suffering With and the challenges we had so for those four years. I was all doc. I didn't have the first clue about Hawaii politics I didn't know the names of the other people that we see now in Congress I didn't know anything but being a doctor and still being a doctor. I work still full-time in emergency rooms on the Big Island Every weekend basically I go back and people come in from their car accident or the pneumonia or other attacks I'm their guy. So like I said, you've been their guy for for 17 years. Yeah, so I've been a local doc for 17 years here I actually came directly out of residency Graduated in June and by July I was working as a doc First a few weeks in Hilo and Pahoa because they were short until they had it ready for me to become the doc And we have had I mean just talk about Hawaii for a minute. We've had a doctor shortage. Yes now Have we improved that? I think we I think I've heard that we've improved the doctor shortage We have but there's still a gap and then there was a nursing shortage. Yes as well Just to go off topic for a little bit here What are the what are some concerns there that we should be looking at? Well, I'm glad you bring that up because that's Doing the National Health Corps, which was a loan repayment way to bring doctors into the rural areas I saw that that worked and so then at the legislature that created the Hawaii Health Corps Which we now fund to bring scholarships to doctors and nurse practitioners and psychologists to go work in underserved areas So we have a physician slash provider shortage of about six or seven hundred providers at any given time We have 3200 healthcare providers physicians that are licensed in the state of Hawaii that are actually working We've set a lot of people licensed more than that seven thousand people but a lot of retirees We need another seven hundred providers and doing scholarship programs and nurses both combination both because nurse practitioners are also now Another bill that I wrote in past as a reflection of what I experienced as a doctor in Kahoo We now make nurse practitioners full PCPs primary care providers So they can do prevention and they can follow diabetes and high blood pressure So all these things we still have an issue and I'm gonna stick on this for a minute And then we're gonna jump off great. We still have an issue with the fact that our Rural health care is and we were talking about this before our rural health care still is Across the country is bad. Yes here. It's bad because you have to get on a plane right to come to a Wahoo. Yes What can we do and what conversations have been had to address? Let me even give you the numbers so nationwide we're 22% short on all providers If you go to the major items or the rural parts of Honolulu were 40% short of providers What can we do? We can bring people in through scholarship programs We can sustain and enhance the community health centers if we tripled the size of our community health center footprint Everyone would have a provider everyone on Medicare and Medicaid in Hawaii with 362,000 people of our population on Medicaid We have another 200,000 on Medicare all of whom have trouble finding a physician or a nurse practitioner on any given day So we have to number one We cannot accept the current craziness that's coming out of DC. The bill that they have is Catastrophically bad and that would crash health centers and rural hospitals So if I become a lieutenant governor, which we'll address going forward One of my principal battles will be on behalf of Hawaii families and actually families across the country to defeat that kind of a proposal I have proposals on my own which we can come back and do other shows on absolutely Yes, but that's a signature piece in addition to that You have to also look at what it means to just bring providers into the state in general It's very difficult because it's not just providers though It's also making sure that the facilities are there that's right on each island and that each island can if properly funded through various mechanisms right each island should be able to have its own centers without having to fly off to Oahu just to get a procedure done exactly so all basic care needs to be provided all times which is primary care prevention care and Life-sustaining care like I provide in the ER plus OBGYN another unique form of care I would even add to that in my opinion Psychologic and psychiatric services and also drug treatment. I think that's core primary care Absolutely, it's and more and more you were talking earlier about the opioid Concerns that we have across the country right and we know that's been an issue here with the meth project One of my good friends is was was really effective director of that for a while. Yes Georgie to cost us is great. Anyway, okay. Let's go. Let's shift back. Okay, so so thank you for the background on that part of it Now you are currently a senator. How long have you been a senator here in here in Hawaii? I've been a senator or state senator for nine years and That's been from Kona or the at one point My district was Kona and north and then there was redistricting and then it became Kona and Ka'u south but that's been for nine years and before that I was Kind of very honored to become the state representative So I did four years in the state house and then it's been nine years in the state senate Okay, okay, so four years So two terms in the state house and then nine years, which means you're in your third term I'm in my third term, but one of those terms was the two-year transition term. So Oh, right from 2010 to 2012 from that census. Exactly. So this will be I serve two terms in the house This will be three terms in the senate and I made a commitment to my children and my wife my um My family knows that I have a lot of interests and I have a lot of Passion for many different areas not just politics and policy, but also as a doc I made a commitment to them that I would not be one of those kind of people that will languish in the legislature for decades So there's a lot of great work to be done at the legislature But after my three terms in the senate and two terms in the house I think I have a lot more to offer and that's really why I'm doing this Also, we do have in some areas a void of leadership We need someone that actually is going to have the capacity to fight for her life families without concern for politics And as a doctor, I have an incredible attitude to both speak my mind and use the experience I have So that's why I'm doing it. We can go into a great deal about what I fight for but that's the reason Absolutely, but okay. All right, so um Now, but let me let me ask this. Let me just jump in when you when you were when you first became representative Right. Was that an open seat? No, were you appointed? How did that happen? I ran against a gentleman who um You know, it was a heartfelt person He had uh, he was a republican incumbent and I went door to door in my scrubs for seven months And I lost 40 pounds walking door to door. I went through three shoes Three pairs of runny shoes you've experienced that to call And it was a great experience because even to this day every time I'm at the airport coming and going from the district Someone will stop me and say hey, I remember you when you came to my door. You're that young guy In your scrubs in shorts talking to us about what you thought you'd fight for you're still that young guy because we're the same age We're the same age and I and I still believe the same things, but it's the um, that was a good start for me So when I beat that guy he um They didn't see it coming I'm a dogged campaigner and I work very hard at this because I figure if I'm going to invest And take other people's trust to you know be expressed through me it means something right and I that campaign I I went door to door for those seven months that when I won the senate race. I also um, I first challenged a candidate who who was an incumbent and bowed out then I had a primary I made 16,800 phone calls um and walked plenty as well And those phone calls were direct calls to my constituents up and down the coast of west hawaii It's what my opponents can expect from me this next time. I don't like to leave any stone unturned and Look people deserve to to hear from their candidates If a better candidate than me is out there, that's good But they should know and so they'll get to talk to me. They'll watch your show. They'll watch a lot of other venues But if they want to actually talk to me they should call me on my cell phone and you can give them my cell phone You can give them my email What's your cell phone my cell phone is 9 3 7 0 9 9 1 and it's been that number forever on the weekends guys I'm on call at the hospital. So be mindful, but any other time Call me and ask me what I believe in or tell me what your nephew is suffering with or tell me What you worry about for your spouse. I mean, that's the kind of thing that we can actually do in hawaii It's a small state. I don't think a lot of other states have that luxury But that's what I'm trying to be as a person When these are draw expect that from your candidate. Yeah, I Think one of the biggest disconnects we have is the actual voters Being able to connect more directly with a lot of our candidates and or elected and and it seems like once Once many people get elected They slowly shift away from that type of face-to-face connection. Yes, and I think that's a shame Aside from sign waving. Yeah We need to make sure that we can hear I have a strange experience as the doc still It is not uncommon. I mean this call is not uncommon I'll be taking care of somebody and they'll come in with broken ankle or pneumonia or whatever And once we get their pain under control or they're doing better They will start asking me about what are we doing on the rail? What are we doing on health care access? What are you doing josh? I miss her that issue and sometimes it's funny because uh, I'm not particularly partisan Sometimes it's like this really Wonderful crusty old republican guy I just set his like shoulder back into place and he wants to ask me about politics and I And reluctant because I want to be in that moment as their doctor But I realize people have a chance to talk to me and it's that lens that has been unique for me I don't know. It's it's a strange lens. I've had people also say I'll never vote for you again You're not giving me pain pills Shocking shocking experience and I say look We're trying to take care of people in society. Let's separate these issues But I'm here if you're suffering So I have these two universes that have collided that they collided and it worked for I guess what 13 years I think a very important part As part of your job as a full-time emergency doctor Yes, you see your constituents every weekend at least those that come through. Yes So that is definitely a difference. So whether or not you're able to hold a town hall on that situation Individual one-on-one as you go that still gives people the opportunity to connect to you. Well, imagine this And I've heard one of one of the other Candidates say that we're all about the same and it'll be based on ethnicity or this without its silliness And you're going to talk to him in the coming weeks, but uh, good friend. Actually, it's just not true Last weekend. I had a kid come in with a febrile seizure 105.3 degrees a baby. Okay, two and a half year old baby Basically near coma just had the seizure The family was too poor to afford Tylenol and the grandfather brought this kid in Now I'm thinking how do I take care of that child? And I'm also at the same time wondering in the in the subsequent hours What would we have done if this family was one of the casualties of a new healthcare bill that cut back on our Medicaid expansion That child would have either died Or Some other nurse could have done what I did as a doctor and saved the child That's not what I'm trying to say I'm saying that child would have died because they either wouldn't have come to the hospital because they would have been afraid That they would go bankrupt These are real things that I experienced and I've talked about these issues until you know the sun rises and sets Because a few people with some expertise might just be good for government. We haven't seen that a lot Let's hope it happens Right, but it's time for us to take a quick break. Great. So thank you again for joining us and thank you so much for joining us This is think tech Hawaii's movers shakers and reformers politics in Hawaii series. I'm your host Carl Campania Thanks to you again Many many thanks to our guest today. Uh senator josh green. We'll be back in one minute You're watching think tech Hawaii which streams live on think tech Hawaii comm uploads to youtube and broadcasts on cable oc 16 And a lullo 54 great content for hawaii from think tech Ha my name is raya salter and i'm the host of power up hawaii Which you can see live at from 1 to 130 every tuesday at think tech hawaii.com and then later on youtube I am an energy attorney clean energy advocate and community outreach specialist and on power up hawaii We come together to talk about how can hawaii walk towards a clean Renewable and just energy future to do that We talk to stakeholders all over the spectrum from clean energy technology folks to community groups to politicians to regulators to the utility So please join us tuesdays at one o'clock for power up Welcome back to think tech hawaii's movers shakers and reformers politics in hawaii series I'm your host Carl Campania. Once again. Welcome senator josh green. Good to see you again All right, so now we're gonna shift a previous segment was a bit of your history and what got you where you are right now And a lot of conversation about about really healthcare and that's a huge conversation I want to have going forward as well But in this segment what i'm going to focus on is lieutenant governor race right now you have Have you officially come out and declare that you are running for lieutenant governor? Or is it just one of those? You know we're thinking about it. I'm gonna run for lieutenant governor I intend to follow the papers when the time comes I've made a commitment to my family and friends Uh to run I still want to hear from a few more people across the state because i've already been going statewide Hosting talk stories mali berga and i'm headed for kawaii soon. I've been on a wahoo already too I really think that people deserve to give me an earful if they think i am qualified or not qualified Or if they think i should run for a different office as we know there a lot of relevant offices state senate's important I think the lieutenant governorship is very important. We'll talk about that There's of course the governorship in the congressional seats I had some soul searching time with my wife after the legislative session We decided as a family that having me here with my ten-year-old and six-year-old Not often dc is better for us and the expertise i bring on some of the issues Which i think you'll ask me about or what i intend to do Homelessness health care access living wage. These are things we'll talk about in a second I can be a very powerful advocate and that's where i intend to make Kind of my job important as lieutenant governor I will make the final decision in the coming month and i will Share with everybody, but i think it's safe to say that you should expect me in the lieutenant governor race next year Okay, I am for one Of the belief that we need more candidates running for more offices Because of one of the things that was mentioned is and that is we have sort of avoid Yes As soon as one person retires and this person goes away or all of a sudden who's going to be there and who's going to do what And who has the experience right and that chops to be able to step into some of these big issues that we're really facing us So, um, so I appreciate that you're running for lieutenant governor Whether or not I would support and vote for you is a whole different conversation to have It's not for it's not for this show But it's about this is about just learning more about you and about what your vision is so But before we go into your vision, right tell me From your perspective Your understanding of the role of lieutenant governor, sure Uh with the with the direct caveat that lieutenant governorship is what you make of it Some lieutenant governors across the country in hawaii have been very influential Others have not had any ability to function under their governor The formal role of lieutenant governor is to essentially be the secretary of state for the state of hawaii And to step in for the governor when he or she is traveling Or if she or she has a health problem Or god forbid is unable to continue in the office You can be A professional partner of the governor and you can also own different issues if the government will let you work on them I'm more proactive than that and we'll talk about that part though is the key is it's the relationship between you and the governor Yes, or the lieutenant governor and the governor and what the governor is also interested in willing to let you do Yes What are your expectations for those dynamics? No matter who the governor? Well, let me even first say that I I met and spoke with governor you go yesterday And he understands that first of all we go way back and we have a good relationship He understands that I intend to be a passionate solution person On the biggest problems that our families are facing number one living wage I'll be an advocate there. He will let me work on that issue I've already been crusading on new solutions for homelessness as you've seen. Oh, absolutely Your legislation to have homelessness or at least certain aspects of homelessness be a medical issue Yes, and that's an important discussion Which really goes back to the 80s when reagan decided to kick everybody out who had medical Had mental health needs. Yes, and that has been something we're still trying to find solutions for that crisis resonates Exactly from that point all the way through Our current calendar and so many people are suffering out there And that would be an issue that I take up what they did in utahil with lieutenant governor took that issue owned it And they essentially beat back homelessness for a lot of Suffering people and it was a great success. That is something that it has occurred to me also needless to say I'll be working on Strategies to have universal health care for the state of hawaii and I don't just mean universal health care coverage I mean actual care. I need to push on that one a little bit. Yes This last session and you know that I I feel very fortunate that I was able to get a a bill introduced Calling for universal health care. Yes. Um, it got introduced. It got 12 cosigners from the senate Yes, it didn't get a hearing I wasn't the health chair at this time. I'm the human services chair So I've been the health chair you can bet it would have been heard and I actually chaired in 2006 the universal health care task force And we showed in that task force because I was chairman of the health committee in the house at the time That you can have universal health care in the state of hawaii It would require a cost five point six percent Fee but everyone making up to 90 thousand dollars would pay less for health care Everyone between 90 and 135 thousand would pay the same and over 135 thousand there'd be a little extra cost We could do universal health care. We could talk about I would like a whole other show on that because that's because one of the other issues one of the other bills that that was introduced was Getting funding into hha. Yes. I would the the That would have been the committee right that was going to create that policy pathway, right? That didn't happen either Yeah, and it's a uh It's a space that I can function in because I will tell you right now in advance knowing who the potential candidates are in this race I'm going to be the only progressive candidate that can win statewide. That is absolutely a fact Now we can have this discussion over and over again and we will in the community, but everywhere I go Families tell me they're getting crushed under the weight of special interests And they need somebody to push back. So what you've seen for me is When I saw that pesticides are getting sprayed on kids at schools I pushed against Monsanto when no one else would when I saw that we needed to expand Medicaid I made sure that we went from 250,000 to 200 to 362,000 people So we didn't continue to have a much higher uninsured rate I'm not afraid to fight those fights because I have this other life I have a physician life Whereas anyone else in this race unless someone comes out of nowhere, which would be really great actually With other experiences everyone else ends up being a career politician So I'm a unique person. I'm not saying that makes me the best person I'm saying that that makes me the most effective person to fight on these controversial issues Where other people shy away from like you described. So what you're saying there is someone who's more of a career politician is more subject to their supporters and who is endorsing them versus You know, where's a set of issues to take care of a bunch of people that live in this state that need it and Not necessarily being tied to who is donating to me Well, I'll say it again I'm more of a local doctor than I am a career politician No doubt at all and you need to go no further than me flying back and forth to Kona every week to do a 72 hour shift With my community and constituents. So It's tiring But it's valuable during the session doing the session because you've got 12 15 hour days Every day every week during the session I still go back under a 48 hour shift instead of a 72 hour shift because it's It is the way I can keep these two lives going and I think it's important It's really for other people to judge But I will be that progressive candidate and I enjoy it. It's just for fun the issues the issue So you want to be able to tackle homelessness you want to be able to tackle health care And yes, hopefully finally deliver universal health care for hawaii Perhaps be a model for the rest of the country right we are at that place right now nationally where We either they either the current republican Republicans in control will either crush The entire health care industry Or we can fix the affordable care act or just go universal health care Those are really the only ways to improve upon right, but In order to fight against that I do agree with you. We need someone who understands From the operations side What's going on and how to better make sure that we're taking care of the people Imagine imagine for a second that I'm selected. I'm chosen to be lieutenant governor I hope with all my heart. I am because when I run a campaign I go all in I'll be the only physician in the country That's in higher office as a lieutenant governor or governor Not since Howard Dean right not since Howard Dean and Howard Dean's a personal friend and is helping me with my campaign I was also one of the first dean dozen He endorsed me in my first race and I'm one of their guys that was able to win and stay So that's been actually just a heartfelt honor because I love Howard I would be that guy that can go nationwide next week I'm in seattle to speak with the mayor of seattle and their council and to see all of their homeless shelters There's small homes small homes and to address the University of washington on our solutions and the ideas I have for hawaii I'm already reaching out because I want us as hawaii To be a leader on many issues and we can be we are better than most other states on health care, but we have a long way to go We have a crisis on homelessness But we have the capacity because we're a small contained state to all pull together and work on this issue We have the capacity to get enough care for people who have opioid addiction We have the capacity to take care of our rural health care to work on our rural health care system So these kind of challenges which seem very large when you're in the mainland and they are large Can be taken up by a lieutenant governor Will the governor sometimes Look with their eyebrows raised and say oh my god. I got this lieutenant governor who's going off Of course they will an activist advocate lieutenant governor. It is okay You know, I was embraced by my west hawaii community over 80 percent of the vote continuously Republicans and democrats and far left and far right people supported me because I'm a doctor first And then and then an activist like you say about taking it's about that connection with people And what are you doing and and how do you communicate with them? Okay, so in the last like minute and a half we have um Round out your vision my vision is that we do several things. We focus actually on the core problems that hawaii families are facing They don't have an adequate uh living wage That means they can't afford housing and with our housing rates the way they are people are two or three paychecks from becoming homeless Not to mention the eight thousand individuals that are already homeless sometimes one paycheck away It has to be addressed We have to preserve the medicaid and medicare programs for the country and we have to do it in hawaii even if The federal government especially especially if they go astray and finally we have to take on the larger special interests Interests that have run rampant over hawaii and in this case i'm talking about public health issues like toxic pesticides Those kind of poisons that are creating additional problems. We're seeing a surge in chronic health problems And we're seeing a surge in things like autism and it's no coincidence that these things are going on on the current leadership's watch over the last decade You will have a crusader in me if i'm chosen as lieutenant governor These are some of the core issues now There are many other issues that i look forward to taking up but in our 30 minutes together I really wanted to convey that now i'll be spending the next year talking to hawaii families in person I'll be on shows i'll be out in the field and i'll be in the emergency department and hopefully you'll call me on my cell phone Going forward we actually can have leadership for people against special interests, but it has to be done all across the country This is going to be one spot. Absolutely. No, and I thank you for that and I thank you for that message Congratulations to you for for running. I'm assuming you're running. We should all assume that now Looking forward to the next year and I do invite you back at your Availability to come talk on any one of these issues I would love to do a special episode on living wage special episode on Healthcare and diving into some of the rural concerns that we have and how to address that Some of the challenges that we have and how we can actually address some solutions And that was to me the most important word you used to me was solutions To the problems we have I don't like talking about problems if there's not a solution But that's because i'm a project manager. So thank you so much for joining us on the show truly appreciate the opportunity Welcome back anytime. Uh, thank you for joining us again This is think tech hawaii's movers shakers and reformers politics in hawaii series This was our show with senator current senator josh green candidate we believe For lieutenant governor for next year. So thank you for joining us. We'll see you next week. Take care