Sunflower State News

Wichita, KS – On June 28, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. joined KNSS Radio live from the Wichita studio to discuss his bipartisan work on the workforce shortage in the medical field, his efforts to modernize prior authorization for commercially insured patients, and an update on the 2023 Farm Bill.

You may click HERE to listen to Senator Marshall’s full interview.

Highlights from the interview include:

On the shortage of nurses and doctors:

“So there’s this mental health epidemic and that’s exploding in our emergency rooms. Our nurses feel threatened, they’re overworked, they’re underpaid. And, you know, my heart goes out to my nurses, such special, special people.”

“One of our big concerns is workforce, that we’re losing so many nurses and doctors. They’re just overwhelmed: they become data entry personnel. The government is smothering us, we’re not being rewarded. They’re actually the government’s been cutting pays for doctors for the last four or five years as well.”

On Modernizing Prior Authorization for Commercially Insured Patients: 

“Bernie [Sanders] and I are working on the Prior Authorization Legislation. So like you said, if you need your knee replaced, you got to call the insurance company and ask them if it’s okay, and then they delay you, delay you, delay you.”

“And really what’s happening, especially we’re seeing it with Medicare Advantage programs, is really their trick is to delay care. They ask for one thing from the doctor’s office, you give it to them, and then say okay, now we wait two weeks to get back with you, now we want something else as well, and next thing you know three months have passed by and this person that needed a knee replaced – now they’re addicted to codeine. So we have the tail wagging the dog.”

On the 2023 Farm Bill and nutrition programs: 

“And while it’s a Farm Bill, 90% of the monies are for food and nutrition.”

“So think about school meals, think about the senior center I’m going to over lunch On June 28 in Andover, think about the WIC programs, think about food banks as well. I’m gonna go to the Cargill Food Bank later On June 28, their distribution center. So 90% of a Farm Bill is for nutrition programs, 5% to the farmers. And for a year like this, crop insurance is so important. We had to plow under a third of the Kansas wheat crop because of this – worst drought we’ve had since 1917.”

On inflation and nutrition programs:

“So just like groceries are up at your house, groceries are up for the federal government. So groceries are actually up about 75%.”

“We’re spending $140 billion a year on nutrition programs right now. And here we’re set at the federal government that’s borrowed, that owes $32 trillion, we’re paying $650 billion of interest, and I’m trying to figure out where’s the money going to come from? But they’re such good programs, we’ll do our best.”

Original source can be found here.