Testimony: Supporting caregivers, problems with Veyo transport, mental health care, faith healing…
In more testimony at today’s health and welfare “listening hearing” in the Lincoln Auditorium:
Dr. Kara Kuntz, a family physician and geriatrician from Boise, shared the story of a patient whose life was ruined due to illness and inability to pay for care, speaking with emotion. “It is important to Idahoans’ health that we close the gap,” she said. She also urged support for unpaid caregivers, through the Idaho Lifespan Caregiver Action Plan. “I care for many aging adults who have such severe illness or dementia that they are no longer able to care for themselves. Often they are cared for by a friend or family member who is unpaid,” she said. “Supporting caregivers improves the health outcomes and delays the need for institutionalization. I urge you to support this action plan and help caregivers of our state get the support they need.”
Jenna Dewitz, who works as a social worker intern, said, “We have clients who are picked up and taken to the wrong place. We have refugee clients who can’t speak English and they are basically lost for hours. ... We have had clients including children walk 2 to 5 miles home because they didn’t want to wait for Veyo any longer. … We recently had a refugee client from Afghanistan who had a 1:30 appointment and who wasn’t picked up until 7 p.m. and her family thought that she had been kidnapped.”
All those complaints involved Veyo, a non-emergency medical transport service for the state that contracts individual drivers. Sen. Lee Heider asked, “Can I just see a show of hands about the number of people who are here about the Veyo issue?” About 20 people in the audience raised their hands.
Michelle Stirling told the committee that her son’s health care costs since the age of 5 have been significant due to his mental illness, even though the family have insurance. “I’m frustrated,” she said, with the “lack of health care services for children with mental illness, the lack of services for the mentally ill. … I hope you’ll hear my testimony and make real changes to help my son and other families who suffer from mental illness and other mental disabilities.”
Jessica Chilcote said, “Please let Congress know that Idaho does not support of repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a meaningful replacement, and please make this the year that Idaho closes the Medicaid gap.”
Laura Scuri, owner of Access Behavioral Health Services, said she’s been testifying to lawmakers since 1999 on the “state of behavioral health care in Idaho.” She said, “We’ve made some really significant progress. That said, it’s fragmented progress, with the cost shifting to the agencies who are providing the services to the most vulnerable people in Idaho. … We see those people that everybody drives by and won’t make eye contact with, every day in our office. We function in a very fragmented system. Every time there’s an administrative cost or administrative requirement, my agency, specifically me, bears the cost of that. … It’s time for Idaho to stand up and develop a system of care for all of our patients.”
Jenny Willeson of the Cathedral of the Rockies spoke about Idaho’s faith-healing exemption. “We must never use religion as a shield from laws or regulations, nor should religion be used to justify discrimination or neglect,” she said. “The early lawmakers of our state understood this and upheld laws that required all parents, regardless of their religious belief, to obtain necessary care for their children. … But in the 1970s Idaho enacted a religious exemption for providing medical care for sick children. Nationally, it soon became clear that children were dying as a result, and while other states eliminated this exemption, Idaho did not. … It’s time to make that happen.”
Jenny Peterson of Health Freedom Idaho, said, “We’re legislating more and more control over people’s lives because we want to feel safe and secure. .. I have a concern that there are plans for legislation in Idaho that will limit my freedom to choose what I feel is important in caring for my own health and also for the health of my family and children. … I’m deeply concerned that there are plans for legislation that will violate our precious Constitution of the United States, in the name of protecting children… I want my fellow Idahoans to have their choice of whether to put their faith in God or whether to put their faith in a medical doctor to heal their child.”
Melody Hayden of Caldwell told the lawmakers she became very ill and fell into Idaho’s Medicaid gap. “Being sick or disabled is not a choice,” she said, urging them to support closing the gap.
