
7-5-22: Food Banks, Covid Waivers-Telehealth, Josh Barnett
Season 2022 Episode 129 | 27mVideo has Closed Captions
On Arizona Horizon, we discuss Food Banks, Covid Waivers-Telehealth and Josh Barnett.
From high rent to gas prices and inflation, Arizona food banks are in need as more people seek help. While Pandemic-era tele-health waivers are allowing doctors to treat patients from other states are set to expire this fall. Finally, Republican bosh Barnett is running in the GOP Primary for Congressional District-1.
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Arizona Horizon is a local public television program presented by Arizona PBS

7-5-22: Food Banks, Covid Waivers-Telehealth, Josh Barnett
Season 2022 Episode 129 | 27mVideo has Closed Captions
From high rent to gas prices and inflation, Arizona food banks are in need as more people seek help. While Pandemic-era tele-health waivers are allowing doctors to treat patients from other states are set to expire this fall. Finally, Republican bosh Barnett is running in the GOP Primary for Congressional District-1.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>> Ted: Coming up on Arizona.
BS, on Arizona horizon, how inflation is impacting local food banks and those they serve.
On Cronkite news, the last dpai day to register to vote and the relationship between colonialism andPuerto Rican statehood.
♪♪ >> Ted: More information is coming out on the mass shooting yesterday in the Chicago suburb that killed seven people and injured 30 during a July 4th July 4th parade.
The suspect has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.
Plus say that the suspect, a 21-year-old man, tired more fired more than 70 rounds into the crowd and no specific targets and the gunman reportedly had been planning this attack for awhile.
>> We do believe Crimo preplanned this attack for several week.
Brought a high powered rifle to this parade and accessed the roof of a buzz, business and began opening fire on the independence day parade goers.
>> They said it was purchased legally despite two run-ins with police in 2019 involving to, quote, kill everyone and the other was a suicide threat made that same year.
A new study finds those infected with Covid face an increased chance of new and sometimes lasting health problems and research looked at VA health records of five and a half million people and those with two or more documented infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times the risk of hospitalizations within six months of the last infection compared with those ha had who had Covid just one once.
And this comes as new research shows that Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 2021.
Cancer and heart disease were number one.
President Biden awarded the medal of honor to four Vietnam veterans.
This is the most prestigious honor and they were all Army vets and Dennis Fugi, Dwight birdwell and army staff sergeant Conasaro and they were at the White House and the fourth was honesterred posthumously.
>>> Arizona food banks are being hit by inflation which is making for a rise in demand for food bank services.
Join us now is the CEO of the food bank and how are food banks going?
>> July is a tough month.
We know it's very hot and it also represents volunteers that come to the food bank who have now left for vacation and get out during the summer months and scales are out ofscalschools are out of session and whale wewhile we have some sites, it doesn't replace the meals at school and gas prices and all impacts those that come to fad banksfoodbanks even before the pandemic levels.
It's an increase in waves and July and August are high served months for us.
>> Let's talk about inflation.
Inflation for groceries and for those that you serve, rent, groceries, gas, all of a sudden, they find they need a food bank.
>> We see a lot of families telling us that 14% food inflation factors are impacting their budgets and saying, hey, I need extra help and much more is going toward rent and can I get assistance and families who have been priced out of the housing market and maybe rent went up too much and coming to us for a food bag to homeless individuals rather than that than box to prepare meals at their own home.
>> Ted: Do the impact food banks, I'm sure there are purchases along the way, as well.
>> We are purchasing more food than before because we know we need a stable ?rie supply.
Would you like to run a food bank where you don't know how much supply or demand and I don't think too many business people to sign up for that assignment and we know we'll need an increased amount of food to Meadow Lake make sure we serve the families that come to us.
>> Ted: Are you getting less in the way of donations since people are holding onto it more than they used to?
>> Great donations from ag partners which is critical to the work we do.
Ag partners have been generous to us and we're purchasing more fad through an propose appropriation and about $500,000 locally produced agriculture called friends of the farm and grateful to those ag partners and retail and grocery have been good donors and we're grateful to that and yes, we think that has impacted those donors.
>> Ted: I want to geet get into this deeper, but people don't realize school offers so many low-income and disadvantaged kids a free lunch.
>> Nearly 600 children eat free and reduced meals each day dismeasandthat's a tremendous amount and during the pandemic, all children were getting that for free.
We will return to the school year to families needing a free and reduced-price application.
Not only to get the meals during the school year but to able to get pandemic EBT which is extra each month to make up for the missed meals and get back on their feet after the pandemic.
>> Ted: The pandemic was so different if so many ways can you see how things are change examinationchangingand evolving?
>> It was high and people were scared and not sure what would happen with their employment and what would map with happen.
You saw that wane as some federal benefit programs increased.
Kids got back to school and it comes and goes.
The wave we're this is a higher peak and we're hopeful as we have cooler months, agriculture comes back and folks get back to their jobs and that comes down again.
>> Ted: What do food banks need the most right now?
>> Volunteers, for sure.
I know a lot of of folks where gone did spend July on vacation and if you're here in Arizona and able to donate a few hours of your time, we appreciate that help.
If you like too come in and donate dollars or water, bee peanut butter and we can usually buy food cheaper than you can and we encourage you to donate to one of the food banks.
>> Ted: You pensioned mentioned volunteers and tough to find folks.
If someone is interested and how?
>> Go to AZfoodbanks.org and we can link you up and you can volunteer right there.
>> Ted: Arizona food bank network and thank you for join us.
How out of state telehealth services may be a thing of the past.
Pandemic telewaivers allow doctors to treat from other states will expire this fall and from more from losing these waivers and the options and we welcome ASU college's of health solutions and thank you.
Nice to have you in-person and you're usually on this screen and gives us more information on this interstate solution and why were there waivers and what's happening?
>> So telemedicine is not anything new and been around for quite awhile and because of federal regulations, lots of barriers that rea restricted wide-spread use.
At the beginning of the pandemic, through some relaxation of the regulations from, you know, health and human services and also CMS, waivers around Medicare coverage, it made telehealth way more accessible for a wide variety of people and a loosening that makes it difficult to access, especially for folks in rural areas, ederly folks, et cetera.
>> Ted: They're doing things they weren't allowed before and why not keep them in place?
>> Why was there a ban or regulation on interstate telemedicine?
There's been concern around telehealth for three reasons and why it's making these changes permanent, which is what about the cost, right?
Does this cost less?
Does it open up opportunity for fraud?
What about quality and outcomes?
What the initial information from the pandemic is showing is actually telehealth has been a great opportunity from an access perspective and reducing costs on many different services.
Outcomes are good, as well.
So this definitely was temporary waiver that started at the beginning of the pandemic and extended through the middle of July and extended again through the middle of October.
Lots of question marks as to what happens for most services after October.
>> Ted: I would imagine rural folks, older folks, who is impacted most by this?
>> If you think about who telehealth has helped the most, folks in rural areas, right, those living in medically underserved counties and lots of counties across the U.S. Folks that have transportation issues, can't take time off of work to go to hospital appointments, et cetera.
It's been an opening of access for those populations.
So what we've seen is an incredible opening for mental health services.
So some of the regulations that have been loosened will be permanent as it relates to mental health and behavioral health and not a lot of permanent talk for physical health.
>> Ted: Why the difference?
>> It's an excellent question and I think different lobbying groups involved and lots of success seen from the mental health and behavioral health side and we've seen an explosion of need for mental health and behavioral health services and this helps to meat that need.
Again, until we have definitive answers around that cost, quality, I think we'll see some barriers for the physical health.
>> Ted: Can you get definitive answers when it expires?
>> That's an excellent question and how do we determine this information, especially when we were dealing with a public health emergency, which is why we relaxed these regulations and Not all populations have been served through the telehealth services in the same way.
There's still gaps in how very low income communities have been able to access telehealth, especially around Internet access.
We assume ang cess access to high speed Internet and those that are not native English speak e and speakers.
And also what works here and ba what has worked and solve the major wicked problems in healthcare?
>> Ted: Let's say they expire.
If the national waive esers are gone, can Arizona combine with California, Nevada and new Mexico instead of me going to New Jersey, which could cause problems.
My telehealth person would be in California.
>> There's a lot of options so, why are we not jumping on the options regularly, during sort of these waivers.
What we did do is loosen regulations as to which.ers providers could provide care and out of state pryers providers.
There's a lot of opportunity and a chance to take a look at the opportunities to make them non-pandemic reality.
>> Ted: Sounds like the pandemic accelerated everything and holding on.
>> When you look at who supports the telehealth measures and expandlexpanding, it's every state and lots of mental health advocates and patient's advocates and I think it's time to take a deeper look at how to make the changes permanent and things like having payment parody and that's a big piece providing the same and care via telehealth or in-person.
Not necessarily requiring an in-person or visual meeting, right, allowing audio, et cetera.
Just thinking about what's worked and passed the pandemic.
>> Ted: College of health solutions and we'll keep an eye on this.
Thank you for joining us.
>> Thank you.
♪♪ Education ca es ca >> Highland park Illinois, grapples with the aftermath of the sprayed parade shooting.
>> Ted: Republican Josh Barnett is running for congressional district one and to willing to debate and the others declined to participate and we're giving him time to give us his views.
Thank you for being here.
You're running to replace a sitting Congressman.
Why?
>> The number one thing, I would never primary a republican I thought was doing a good job.
I don't feel he's doing a good job.
You know, when he, those, voted to not accept the Arizona slate in D.C. and sending it back wit with the and normalities and I thought, this is not representing me, the republican party or the people I know in this district.
He voted to track the people's vaccination status and that was a big problem in regards to the medical freedom and interaction with their doctors, as well.
And he's done many things along the way from voting against pulling troops out of Syria and a lot of people disagree with.
>> Ted: Would you have voted to certify Arizona's election results?
>> Absolutely not.
>> Ted: Why not?
>> Statutes were broken and this election was broken from the beginning.
It was illegally run election and we had secretary of states nationwide changing law without the state legislature which is unconstitutional and this election was an invalid election from the get-go.
>> Ted: Not ruled invalid from the courts on down.
Why?
>> They haven't heard the information.
A court that has yet to hear this information.
We had to come out with a movie, 2000 mules, to show something ha happened and we can show 200 mules in Maricopa county that had 20,000 illegal ballots cast.
>> Ted: The 2000 mules, much has been debunked.
>> Not that I've seen.
>> Ted: It's out there and serious evidence of wide-spread fraud, a court needs something, some evidence, some credibility in order to go forward.
Standing, notwithstanding, courts have not found that.
It's one thing to say I believe that and another thing to take it to court and prove that.
Does it concern you no court, from the Supreme Court court on down?
>> You know the thing, they catch you of having to prove fracture.
I don't havefraud.
Like I said, statutes are broken, federal state statutes, that means the election is invalid from the get-go.
The court -- you're correct, the courts haven't heard anything and they haven't addressed the issue where 110,000 ballots were not counted.
>> Ted: Those things have been addressed by the county recorders.
[ Laughter ] >> Ted: No charges by the federal attorney and trump's personal attorney, the attorney general, attorney Barr -- Barr looked at this, 2000 mules and said this was nonsense.
And I don't want to debate you on that and I wanted to get your opinions, but I want to know if you think republicans in your district want to hear what you're saying?
>> I think republicans and Democrats in the district -- remember in 2016, all Democrats were saying it was invalid, they cheated when President Trump won.
>> Ted: They never took that to court.
>> Hilary clinton was saying that everyday.
Right now there is so much going on and we can show stuff.
You know, I can show the paper ballots and show you where we have mail-in ballots with no creases.
We have this evidence.
It's been presented.
>> Ted: Do you think the recentlies thatrepublican recorder saying nothing here, are they in ca cahoots?
>> Democrats and republicans have been doing this for the last 20, 30 years and back and forth ever since.
>> Ted: If you lose this election, will you accept the results?
>> If statutes are not broken, yes.
>> Ted: What about with it privilegeprevious election?
If you're running for Congress, would you accept Kevin McCarthy?
>> I have nothing against hum, him.
I want new blood in that position.
I'm big on, you get what you have always gotten and we need new blood and outsiders and people ha will fight and I would prefer somebody -- more like a Jim Jordan if in that role.
I don't want to go back to the Paul Ryan issue and things weren't getting done.
The border wasn't taken care of and many things happened within that establishment.
>> Ted: You think a ten-year moratorium on immigration?
>> That's what we need to do.
We have, what two and a half million illegals that crossed.
I was at the border and caught two drug smugglers at gunpoint.
Walking down, we caught them and we called border patrol and this is happening and women raped and children trafficked and cartels are making billions.
>> Ted: That's different than all immigration.
You want a ten-year moratorium?
>> We need to figure it out and we can't with nothing.
They come hear and there's crime and not everybody, not everybody.
But I want you to become legal.
I'm all for legal immigration and streamlining this to make this legal.
But we can't just allow anybody to come into our country.
>> Ted: Do you think business owners in your district want to see a ten-year moratorium on immigration?
>> I do.
I don't think that's an issue with business owners.
>> Ted: You don't think immigration and shortage of workers is an issue with business owners?
>> This comes from our government paying people not to work.
>> Ted: Nothing to do with immigration?
>> I don't believe so.
>> Ted: Inflation is at a generallation high and people look at stimulus checks as a problem.
Should the government not have sent those checks out to people in businesses?
>> The first one was necessary because of shutting people down and after that, I think they should have reopened the economy and if the rest of the country would have followed Ron Desantis lead, we would not have been in this.
Joe Biden shut down the energy sector.
2ED >> Ted: They're not refining gasoline the what they could, valid point?
>> Nobody, he's regulated the high heaven and shut down refineries and so when you do that, you can't produce what you normally produce and why not just do it here.
We do it cleaner and better.
>> Ted: Why are the oil companies making record profits?
>> The oil companies are to the ones to set the prices and that's a problem.
There's a misconception of who sets that gas price, right?
It's not the oil companies.
>> Ted: You are trying to replace David Schweikert?
>> Yes.
I'm the one that opened the businesses and I've been fating fighting for election integrity and marry in here in Arizona, only legal votes should count.
>> Ted: I wish we had a debate and thank you for coming in.
That is it for now and I'mTed Simons and you have a great evening!
Coming up on on krient Cronkite news, more fresh produce and break it down, the push for Puerto Rican statehood.
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Arizona Horizon is a local public television program presented by Arizona PBS