Why my kids will be first in line to receive a Sars-Cov-2 vaccine

According to a survey published last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only about one-in-four parents will vaccinate their 5-12 year old ‘right away’ when available, which in all likelihood will be within the next two weeks.

The hesitancy is understandable.

Are the vaccines safe? Are they effective? Is vaccinating children against COVID even needed?

As a local pediatrician, it is my responsibility to make sure the recommendations I offer will better the health and wellness of Fort Wayne’s children.

But I’m also a dad. So here’s why I’m one of the 25% of parents that will be first-in-line vaccinating his favorite patients – my 6 and 9 year old children.

I am confident this vaccine is safe.

I say this both from looking at the safety data from the trials involving children in this age group, and also my experience and knowledge from vaccinating children in my 10 years as a pediatrician. The short-term side effects, similar to the other vaccines we give and trust, are minor and well tolerated. Thankfully, there were zero serious reactions involving children.

But what about the long-term impacts? Being a new vaccine, parents point out that I can’t possibly know how the vaccine will impact children 1, 5 or 20 years from now.

This is where I draw from my medical training, understanding how this shot (all vaccines), are designed to work in the body. Unlike most medicines, which linger in the body for days or weeks, the ingredients in vaccines are quickly eliminated, leaving behind the instructions that help the body’s immune system recognize and fight the virus that causes disease. I’ve never witnessed a vaccine reaction or side effect years after giving a vaccine. The coronavirus-19 vaccine will be no different.

I’ll mention that myocarditis, an extremely rare inflammatory condition of the heart observed in the vaccinated older children and adults, is of concern. However, I point out that children are at much greater risk getting a more dangerous myocarditis from the virus itself. And at this this point in the pandemics, only two things are certain: children will either get vaccinated or get COVID.

The effectiveness of the vaccine is very promising, with data showing that COVID-19 symptoms were prevented in over 90% of kids between ages 5-11 who received the vaccine.

The third question for me is the most compelling. Why do kids need the vaccine in the first place?

Fortunately, compared to adults, most children who get the infection, get over it with supportive care and good old vitamin T (‘Time’). But not for all. Since COVID-19 has killed over 90 kids, and hospitalized many more, there is no way I would qualify it as a ‘benign’ disease. As AAP president Dr. Lee Savio Beers puts it, “There is simply not an acceptable number of child deaths when such effective and safe preventable treatments are available.” Plus, while adults continue to die, or at best fill up hospital beds and emergency resources, we can’t allow children to continue spreading the infection in the community.

And there’s this: I’m tired of my kids getting tested, quarantined, and yes, wearing masks. These important measures for mitigating disease spread, and keeping our schools open, suddenly become much less important if our kids, mine and yours, are vaccinated.

In the upcoming weeks, parents will have an important opportunity to safely protect their children from coronavirus-19.   I may be representing only 25% of parents, but for this Dad and pediatrician,  once the shot becomes available for my children, my kids will be first in line.

How to reduce abortions, lower infant mortality, and promote better lives for children in one easy step

Thank you Senator Charbonneau and members of the committee. My name is Dr. Tony GiaQuinta. I am a Fort Wayne Pediatrician, and the past-president of the Indiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I am here today to testify in support of HB 1468, extra emphasis on the amendment that permits the Indiana Board of Pharmacy, in partnership with the Indiana State Medical Association, to develop a protocol to specify pharmacist training to enable self-administered birth control prescribed and dispensed at a pharmacy to individuals 18 and older.

Now, you may wonder why a pediatrician, charged with the health of Indiana’s children, rescheduled his clinic today to support a bill targeting women over 18.

In fact, I believe this amendment is above all, a bill that promotes the health and success of Hoosier children.

Here’s the gist: imagine if more pregnancies were planned and hoped for.

When I see a newborn in my clinic, I always share my excitement, proclaiming, “I’ve got big plans for this one!”

For many, a mother’s eyes will light up. I see her dwell in possibility: Thinking about how a one week old, will become a one year old, will become a high school graduate, will become a success… all in a blink of an eye. They are nervous, but they are ready. They’ve prepared for this. They finished their education, found some financial security, found a partner (if they choose), and decided to have a baby now that they are ready. This is what they’ve waited for.  

But for some moms, I feel their doubt.

Because they weren’t quite ready for this. They were in the middle of their education, (unplanned pregnancy is the #1 reason for mom’s not finishing college), or planning their career, or saving for a home. They were building for the success they dreamt of. For most, this includes dreams of having children. Just not yet. For 35,200 births each year, a mother’s dream is deferred.

Luckily, in my clinic, when I see doubt,  I wrap them in services, support, and reassurance. WE find them subsidized child care (9K per year), and endorse better paid parental leave and family friendly workplaces. The safety net, with an 800,000K per child price tag, has slowly expanded. And Thank goodness! Fortunately I can’t tell you how many of these mom’s, with time, encouragement, and social support, can focus on their child’s future. But there is a better, less expensive, more effective plan in front of us.

Let’s empower parents to have children when they are ready. HB 1468, by safely increasing access to contraception, would enable parents to plan for parenthood instead of drifting into it. The impact will mean decreasing the staggering high rate of unintended pregnancies, which equates to 55,000 pregnancies and 35,200 births each year in our state. Unintended pregnancies of course are linked to higher infant mortality, maternal mortality, as well as more abortions.  But when parents have planned for parenthood, Indiana wins. We win with healthier pregnancies, we win with a lower infant mortality, we win with healthier children, and a brighter future for Indiana.

50 cent is a fun rapper. 50 cents is a worthless tobacco tax increase.

As a pediatrician charged with our children’s health, screening and treating tobacco use is top priority in my office. You might not expect this from a pediatrician; however, I know that nearly 90 percent of smokers start using tobacco when they are kids. In addition, close to half of all kids are exposed to secondhand smoke, and more than 9,000 babies are born each year to Hoosier moms who smoke. Tobacco use, indeed, is a pediatric disease.

For decades, pediatricians like me have worked along-side families to curb tobacco use. But we need help, and our lawmakers have the prescription, right now, in this year’s legislative session.

Decades of evidence have shown us that significant cigarette tax increases are the most effective tool to keep kids from staring to smoke and to help adults quit.  The key word: significant. Passing small cigarette tax increases simply won’t fix what ails Hoosiers.  


Unfortunately, the Indiana House recently approved a 50-cent cigarette tax increase, which is unlikely to have a significant impact on smoking rates because tobacco companies will simply help consumers offset the increase with coupons, discounts and other price promotions.

 
Tobacco companies spend nearly $300 million per year in marketing in Indiana. About 80 percent of that budget is spent on price promotions – coupons, multi-pack discounts, and contractual arrangements with wholesalers and retailers that keep prices low for consumers.

 
The tobacco industry is shrewd. They use these discount strategies to target price-sensitive populations. And these strategies work. Research shows that tobacco cessation efforts are not substantially boosted after small tax increases and these price discounting tactics lead to young people progressing from experimentation to regular smoking.

 
It’s been fourteen years since Indiana last raised the cigarette tax – longer than most of my patients have been alive. As a pediatrician, I am doing my best to help kids remain tobacco free, but it is time for lawmakers to do their part. I am grateful lawmakers are considering a cigarette tax increase this year, but they should know 50-cents won’t do the trick. I join the 200 health and business groups who have called for a $2 cigarette tax increase. Our kids deserve it and the health of Hoosiers demands it.    

Keeping Things Linear

Random morbid fact: Drowning is the #1 cause of accidental deaths in toddlers. Truth is, I’m not doing my job as a pediatrician if I don’t communicate this to parents at well visits. But it’s not a mic drop as I leave the room. We talk about what that means and how to go about life with a toddler that IS going to be around water from time to time.

Here is the advice I give. When you bring your toddler to an event (lake, pool, birthday party with a pond in the back yard), just ask yourself the question: what will keep my child from wandering into that water without me knowing it. Then we talk strategy. Maybe it’s a locked gate, lifeguard, or a rotating ‘water-watcher’ responsible adult. But if you asked yourself that question, congratulations, you are a water-safety conscientious parent. Enjoy your water-vicinity event!

There’s a parallel here to the advice I’m giving to families about what it means to social distance during the COVID19 pandemic.

Quick disclaimer: I’m not a public health expert. But I did marry one, which is good on me.

Here’s what she, and others public health gurus (here is a great podcast from a friend of mine, Dr. Jim Hamblin MD MPH, now writer for the Atlantic) are saying:

Social distancing is NOT social isolation.

Social distancing is making a conscientious effort to limit the spread of illness.  

As Dr. Hamblin states in his podcast:

“A bad thing is happening and we are going to have losses, people are going to die, and the choices before us are to minimize that damage and help each other out the best we can. We need to balance keeping people healthy and keeping society, our economy, going. We need to be realistic about that. We can’t all just stay inside forever (that would be the safest strategy), and we also can’t be living the way were before.”

To me, this effort is individual and very cumulative.

Here is a graph published by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).

It forecast the virus in the current COVID warzone of Lombardi, Italy. .

Here we see two lines depicting two potential patterns of COVID spread, in terms of the real danger, ICU admissions. Notice they are both increasing. That’s not up for debate.

The take home? We need to keep this thing linear. Viruses want to spread exponentially. They are good at that, and I see this in my clinic every year at the beginning of school. For these two-weeks I’ll see tons of kids with viral illnesses. What happened? A virus went from one snotty kid in school, to another, and they infected two more, and they cumulatively infected 10 more. You get how this spreads right?

That snotty kid is out there folks, and he’s gonna get some of us. But we can keep the spread linear if we make some changes.

Luckily, the government and organizations are taking a lot of our social-activity choices out of our hands. Schools, concerts, sporting events, large public gatherings are cancelled. President Trump took the wise step to declare a state of emergency to free up dollars and loosen restrictions to aid public health efforts (The tacit benefit is a leader showing his country to take this seriously).

So, now we are left with choices to make on an individual level. What are the rules?

Rule #1: forget thinking about rules. My advice is to make conscientious efforts, similar to my pool safety spiel. If you do that, I really think we are doing our part to keep this thing linear.

One example is my daughter’s birthday party. We have been planning a big Minnie Mouse party for Margaret. Should we cancel?

We did not. We made a conscientious effort to change our plan to limit spread and exposure. We invited her two best friends (cousins!) and told the other kids to take a hike. With a little hand sanitizing from time to time we had a great time. Margaret sure did.

We can do this! Yes, we will have some choices and sacrifices to make, and honestly, we all know that not everyone is doing this well (check out the Vegas strip). You can’t control that, so don’t worry about it. But little things matter, and your individual efforts will have an exponential impact.

Dayton and El Paso. A Tale of Two Cities

Being a pediatrician is pretty great. For much of the day, I’m playing and interacting with healthy children, monitoring their development, showing off magic tricks, hi-fiving for good report cards, hi-fiving parents for potty training successes.

But I have bad days too.

I’ve cared for children that died from Cancer.

I’ve cared for children that died from SIDS.

Just last month I lost one of my patients in a car accident.

These deaths are tragic and completely heart breaking.

And for everyone of these deaths we search exhaustingly, asking what could we have done differently to prevent this. Asking, what more can we do.

So we act. And we pour every amount of science, medicine, and technology into saving children from cancer.

We passed LAWS to keep infants and toddlers safe and secured in a highly regulated carseat, and young children buckled up.

We regulate the safety of cribs, mattresses, sleepers and post billboards stating unequivocally this is the safest way to sleep and prevent SIDS. Just last month, they took the rock-n-play sleeper off shelves because they said this piece of elevated bedding is too dangerous.

In each of these tragedies our society devotes every effort, including laws, science, and research towards preventing these deaths. Those deaths from the rock-n-play sleeper, although very rare, were unacceptable. Just one extra death from that device was one too many. One too many to ignore even the smallest possibility of a life saved.

But when children die from bullets, whether accidental deaths, homicide, or suicide, are our actions the same?

Do we act with the same ferocious resolve that one death is too many, that one life saved is worth any effort?

The answer is no.

91% of the children killed by a bullet in the world, are in the united states.

That’s 7 kids dying each day from a bullet, 1300 children a year.

And make no mistake, this is an Indiana problem. Hoosier children are in danger. Indiana has the 7th highest per capita rate of shootings involving children in the US.  

Our older children are especially in danger. According to Indiana Youth Institute’s 2015 Kids Count in Indiana Data, 1 out of 5 Hoosier students contemplated suicide in the past 12 months, and about 1 out of 10 teens attempted it. In fact, Indiana has the highest rate of teens who consider suicide and the second highest rate of teens that attempt suicide. Folks this is why we have red flag laws, and our Senators from Indiana know this!

Listen With > 300,000,000 firearms estimated to be in circulation in the united states, efforts to eliminate guns seem misguided. Rather, we as a health care practitioners believe we can shift the paradigm from efforts to live in a world without guns to ensuring we can live safely in a world with guns.

And we can. Imagine a deadly virus was spreading, killing and more and more children every year. We would declare a state of emergency, band together and focus every effort, every dollar, working continuously to stop its spread.  

Folks Gun violence is a disease, and Our Senators must realize that until we start treating it like a disease and focus every ounce on prevention, from background checks to red flag laws, we will never approach a cure.

El Paso and Dayton. A Tale of Two Cities. Killers with different motivations, from different political spectrums. But of course there are similarities, that is the legal access to a weapon that no one would use to protect their family or hunt. A weapon that is only used by evil people for evil purposes. And of course, the same wasted loss of life.

2018 Resolution: Quit using children as pawns

 

Last week, President Trump made a dubious threat to approximately 800,000 children and young adults currently living lawfully in our country: if my campaign promise to build a Mexico border wall does not move forward, these children and young adults will lose their legal status and potentially face deportation.

So who are these kids?

Under the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals program (DACA), these children, some now young adults (often coined ‘Dreamers’), are undocumented immigrants brought to the United States before age of 16, and have lived in the United States for at least 5 years with no significant criminal history. The program allows them to work in the country under two-year renewable permits, enabling employment opportunities and access to higher education that leads to a snowball effect of positive results in their lives and our community.

As young adults, they have served our country in uniform, graduated from our colleges and universities, and are now investing in our community. In our third congressional district represented by Rep. Jim Banks, there are an estimated 1,000 DACA recipients, and another 1,100 DACA eligible. According to the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, deporting these DACA protected workers would result in a $53,000,000 loss in GDP..

But aside from this, let’s take a step back to consider that on arrival to our country, before being labeled as undocumented immigrants, they were simply children, and this country is the only meaningful home they have ever known. They were children brought here by their parents, and living out a situation they had no control over. I see these kids often in my Fort Wayne clinic, confiding with me in tears the fear of deportation to a country they have no real connection to

Unfortunately, these fears are real and unless congress acts by March 5, 2018, Dreamers’ legal status will expire, and the negative individual and societal impacts realized. Advocating for DACA protections makes sense and is the right thing to do, but as we learned last week, will first depend on a quid pro-quo from the president’s campaign promise to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

While both may fit under the umbrella of immigration reform, marrying these issues together is immature. In reality, this is a strategy we’ve seen before: holding a popular idea hostage to achieve more controversial campaign promises. As you should recall, congress has refused to re-authorize the popular and important Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP), an insurance plan for 9 million low-income children, until the GOP tax plan is signed into law.

We should be saddened and disappointed that in both cases, the pawns are children. We can do better. To our Representative Jim Banks and Senators Todd Young and Joe Donnelly, YOU can do better. In 2018, lets resolve to stop this unfortunate chess game with children and do the right thing first. Protecting our DACA recipients by legislating their protections into a law, with or without President Trump’s wall, is a step in the right direction.

Happy New Year!

-IndyPedsDoc

Senator Todd Young           DC: 202-224-5623      IN: 317-226-6700

Senator Joe Donnelly         DC: 202-224-4814       IN: 812-425-5813

Rep Jim Banks                       DC: 202-225-4436

Go ahead Congress, take your pick!

The Chicago Tribune (12/6/17) reports that Illinois has enough funding for its Children’s Health Insurance Program to last through September, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services = 250K children

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (12/6/17) reports Louisiana will exhaust funding for the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program in mid-January if Congress does not renew federal funding. = 115K Children

The Tennessean (12/6/17) reports the “uncertain future of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP and called CoverKids in Tennessee, is worrying physicians and advocates as well as state officials who could be left to decide whether to use taxpayer money to continue the program if Congress fails to act. = 80K Children

The Dallas Morning News (12/6) reports Texas is considering “an accounting trick” to extend its Children’s Health Insurance Program “a few more weeks.” The Morning News says that “by not taking matching money from the federal government for kids who used to be enrolled in CHIP but are now covered by Medicaid, Texas can stretch the remaining federal funds.” State officials are exploring “contingency funding options.” The state requested an extra $90 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and expects an answer before Saturday

This is happening, and it doesn’t have to. So you know, the estate tax, applied to the monopoly guy/girl leaving behind > 11M to their lucky kids, generates 20B dollars and will be rescinded (at least in the house version). CHIP costs 15B, and insures 9 M kids (500K Hoosiers). For Orrin Hatch to declare “The reason CHIP’s having trouble is that we don’t have money anymore” is an insult to our decency as a society.

This is a non-partisan issue (77% of democrats and 63% of republicans support the program. I see these kids in my clinic EVERYDAY. They are good kids, that deserve the chance to succeed. Their success depends absolutely on being healthy. So I vaccinate them, screen them for developmental difficulties, check their hearing and vision, treat their illnesses, and get them into specialists when they need it. The Children’s Health Insurance Plan lets this happen.

Like early pre-K investments, an investment in children’s health pays off in many ways by not only by staving off potentially chronic illnesses down the road, but also enabling them to be productive members of our community.

It’s time to get our heads out of the sand, and realize that time is running out. Call your legislators and demand action.

-IndyPedsDoc

Rep Jim Banks Website

Senator Todd Young Website

Senator Joe Donnelly Website

 

“Congress, Do Your Job!”

 

A Call for Improving Our Healthcare System from the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent department Chairman, Dr. Alan Schwartz, MD FAAP

What is a politician?  At the most fundamental level, a politician is one who is engaged in government; usually an elected official.  A politician is someone, then, who studies and creates public policy for the betterment of society.  An honorable profession at its heart.  Where we often differ is in what society considers “betterment!”  I think we all can agree that those in government should, and for the most part do, care about the citizens they represent.  It is therefore puzzling that this pursuit of a healthcare policy for the betterment of the citizens of the United States has proven so contentious.

As a primary-care pediatrician in Indianapolis, I have the opportunity to provide health supervision to the most vulnerable yet most important citizens for the future of our community—our children.  As the chairman of the St. Vincent Hospital Department of Pediatrics, I am aware of the myriad and complex medical needs many of our children have and the barriers that exist to providing this care.  Now I am confident that our Representatives and Senators in Washington, D.C. did not set out to add to these barriers or to prevent our children from receiving the health supervision, preventative care, and medical treatments so important to their health, growth, and development, but, the political climate being what it is, that is exactly what will happen if the proposed policies of the House of Representative’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) or the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) become law.

Under the current Affordable Care Act (ACA), those individuals with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be denied coverage nor can that coverage cost more.  Both the AHCA and the BCRA, while touting this same coverage, in reality allow for waivers for states which ultimately would lead to either increased patient costs for this coverage, or actual exclusion and elimination of coverage for some pre-existing conditions.  Why is this important?  Visit any major hospital Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  There you will find many “pre-existing conditions” ranging from congenital defects to pulmonary disease to extreme prematurity with resultant developmental and neurologic consequences.  Many of these medical conditions will be life-long and require ongoing evaluation and treatment.  How will these children become insured?  And at what cost, if coverage will even be available for them?  What about a child who develops asthma, cancer, or diabetes?  That is now a pre-existing condition when they become an adult.  [As an aside, I wonder how many pediatricians were consulted as the AHCA and BCRA were being developed!]

Medicaid snapshot

Did you know that children make up nearly 60% of Indiana’s Medicaid population?  Over 90% of eligible children are able to benefit from this Medicaid coverage. Were you aware that almost half of the pediatric patients treated at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent rely on Medicaid for their healthcare coverage?  Under the current ACA, thirty-one states (including Indiana) as well as the District of Columbia offer expanded Medicaid coverage.  In my pediatric practice, this allows hundreds of children to receive preventative healthcare, immunizations, and illness treatments; and allows tens of thousands of children to receive the specialized care that they need from the pediatric specialists in our state.  While advertising to the contrary, it turns out that both the AHCA and BCRA will ultimately reduce the effective funds available for our Medicaid recipients.  These proposed programs phase out federal funding for the Medicaid expansion thus leaving states to “pick up the tab” for this funding difference.  States’ budgets being what they are, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so.  This shortfall in funding can only lead to three outcomes: 1) Reducing the number of people who can receive Medicaid benefits; 2) Maintaining enrollment but reducing the amount of services available; or 3) Cutting payments to physicians, hospitals, and other care providers.  All of these options will lead to decreased care for the children of Indiana. [Lest anyone wonder how #3 inhibits care—Medicaid reimburses only a fraction of what Medicare might cover, and is often not even sufficient to cover costs.  Those of us who care for children on Medicaid do so because it is the right thing to do, however we cannot personally afford to subsidize the program!  If reimbursement is cut further, many physicians will have no choice but to leave the program, thus creating a gap in care for these children.]

Providing for the health of all of our citizens—children and adults—is not a Republican or Democratic issue.  It is a moral imperative that should reflect the values of our country.  There is no question that our current ACA has some shortcomings.  But recognize that much of the recent turmoil has been created by our current leadership disrupting the funding and structure of the ACA causing the very problems that they rail against!  The AHCA and the BCRA will not fix our system and in fact will only lead to more uninsured citizens and higher costs for those able to maintain healthcare coverage.  Let us work together to improve the ACA—give it a different acronym if that helps—but do not simply destroy it in the name of partisan politics.  

It is no coincidence that most major national physician associations, hospital executives, patient advocacy groups, and a large majority of American citizens oppose the AHCA and BCRA which were largely formulated without any consultation or input from those who know healthcare the best!  It is now time for all of us to let our elected officials know that we care about the health of our children, of our families, of our friends.  We will all be “patients” at some point—even those in Congress and in the White House!  We must, therefore, make sure that the healthcare system we implement strives for excellence in care for every American regardless of their economic status or existing health concerns. The health of American citizens should not be some prize won by the most “political points!”  The health of American citizens should not be sacrificed by short-sighted political promises made!  It is time for Congress to do their job and do what is right.  And with resolve but with respect, let us all encourage those who represent us to do just that.

Respectfully,

Alan L. Schwartz, M.D.,

Chairman, Department of Pediatrics

Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent and

St. Vincent Women’s Hospital;

Primary-care Pediatrician

My good-bye letter to the wonderful folks at Hendricks Regional Health

To all my wonderful friends at Hendricks Regional Hospital

            It has been the utmost honor to be your pediatrician, colleague, and friend these past five years. I was pretty nervous coming out of residency, gearing up to start my first real job. I had trained, like, since I was a fetus for this moment. It was hard to believe that I was ready to shove off on my own and practice medicine. Only, I wasn’t really ready. To be honest, I faked it a lot at first, and hoped that everyone wouldn’t realize how nervous I was, or how many times I sprinted downstairs to my office to look stuff up. But I soon realized that I didn’t have to do that quite so much, because everyone around me was constantly looking out for me, and for each other. A lot of people like to ask me, as a doctor, if I am afraid of making mistakes. I’m now comfortable knowing that I am going to make mistakes, because I’m human. But the only way I might hurt someone, is by ignoring the concerns from the team around me. And it really is an amazing team. I like to picture us on a typical day as a bunch of arrows pointing in different directions, which is fine because we all had lots of responsibilities. But then…. Sh#t hits the fan. And like magic, those arrows became compass points and everyone suddenly points in the same direction, towards the same end of helping a sick mom, baby, or child. We worked together really well, especially when hierarchical titles were put on hold, and respect for each other’s talents and capabilities became the priority. Your effort and devotion you put into your work is something I will always admire, and never forget. In fact, I could never quite figure out why there was a ‘doctors’ day. I sometimes feel like we are the most spoiled profession in the world compared to the hardworking hospital staff I observed everyday.

(above: first day on the job 7/16/2012. Note all the hair. This was before kids)

           I get quite a lot of satisfaction from my patient encounters. It’s what motivates me and makes me feel whole at the end of the day. But the most enjoyment by far was being welcomed by such cheerful faces (seriously!) each and every morning. You all let me into your lives, recounting accomplishments by your family, fun stories, and even sometimes your struggles. And it was reciprocated. I’ll never forget having a tough day, walking with my head down, when I passed one of the janitors in the hall. I didn’t even see her, but as I was walking by, she said sweetly, “cheer up!” It totally shook me out of my funk, and gave me a wonderful feeling of connectedness.  These personal connections were so valuable to me, and I felt it all the time. I’ll surely miss this job, but it’s you all that I will really miss the most. 

Thank you all for everything,

Sincerely,

Tony GiaQuinta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids are not alright. Call your Senator.

In the next two weeks, when you hear “funding cuts” or “caps” to Medicaid during any Senate discussion or debate (if there are any), you might be tempted to shrug your shoulders because either a) you don’t understand the implications, or b) it doesn’t affect you.

Please consider this: Medicaid, among other things, is insurance for children. A lot of children. 30 million children nationwide, of which 564,000 live in Indiana, making up 60% of Indiana’s Medicaid population. To be frank, Medicaid covers children who often need care the most. It is a lifeline for working families, and is relatively cheap, accounting for only 19% of Medicaid spending.

With Medicaid expansion, we are insuring children at historic highs well over 90%. Medicaid children receive all medically necessary care, including physician and hospital visits, well-child vistis and treatment, immunizations, dental, vision, and hearing services.

Medicaid image 3

So why would anyone want to cut Medicaid? It is a political motive, not a public health strategy. Cutting Medicaid is the only way to fulfill a political narrative to financially reconcile the difficulties of promising ‘repeal and replace.’ Unfortunately, Medicaid enrollees don’t advocate for themselves. They are low-income and disabled children. This is stealing from the blind, and for a nation that so often espouses moral principles when advocating for legislative action, this should not happen.

Hoosiers have two senators. Call them! Be the squeaky wheel for children! Tell them when you hear “cuts to Medicaid” that you aren’t fooled. Tell them to protect children’s health care coverage and oppose any funding cuts or caps to Medicaid. These next two weeks may dramatically impact the lives of millions of children in this country. Time is limited. It’s go time.  

Senator Todd Young           DC: 202-224-5623      IN: 317-226-6700

Senator Joe Donnelly         DC: 202-224-4814       IN: 812-425-5813

Other Senator’s contacts found here: https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/federal-advocacy/Documents/Senator%20Contact%20List.pdf

IndyPedsDoc