The Marion County Democratic Party held a picnic and pie auction fundraiser Sunday, with several guest speakers attending the event.
Privatizing Medicaid was one subject on the minds of Democrats on hand; 28th House District Candidate Ann Fields tells KNIA/KRLS News that a number of smaller hospitals are losing money because of privatization, and changes are needed quickly to reverse the trend.
“There’s a lot of people, especially the disabled, where Medicaid hasn’t paid their doctor bills; and that means that the local hospitals have to absorb that. So we have hospitals in trouble financially, because the privatization of Medicaid hasn’t worked,” Fields said.
Former Governor Tom Vilsack goes one step further, telling KNIA/KRLS News that the privatization of Medicaid has been a complete disaster…and that patients are the ones being hurt, because they can’t afford proper care.
“I think the savings are very, very suspect…unlike the savings, we know for a fact people have been denied access to decent care,” Vilsack said.
Around 70 guests were on hand for the event.