By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Dr. Barbara Bollier, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said she is hearing people's frustrations concerning COVID-19 and the politicization of the pandemic as she made a stop in Hays on Saturday.
"People want our economy back on track. They want their kids going to school," Bollier said. "We know masks can help make that happen. That is the No. 1 thing I have heard in the last two days."
Bollier won a seat in the Kansas Legislature in 2010 and was elected to the Kansas Senate in 2016.
Bollier said Congress needs to get help to small businesses. She spoke to local business owners Shaun and Heather Musil at the Paisley Pear Saturday during a meet and greet there. She also made a stop at Fort Hays State University.
She said that help needs to arrive before she is elected to Congress.
"We need to stop being partisan and bickering with each other and come back and work together and get money to people who aren't even employed and want to work," she said.
She said COVID is not going away, but she is hopeful a vaccine will be developed soon.
"But until that happens, we need to follow public heath guidelines so we can get our kids back in school and keep our businesses open," she said. "I know this is hard. We are Americans, and we should be able to hang together to help each other through this hard time."
Health care
Bollier, an anesthesiologist, is a member of Governor’s Council on Medicaid Expansion.
As a member on the Kansas Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, she was an advocate for patient protection, writing and introducing legislation to end the practice of surprise medical billing in Kansas.
She said she would push for similar federal legislation if she is elected to Congress.
She said she wanted to make it clear she is not for Medicare for all. She said she supports Americans' choice to keep private insurance.
"I would like us to build on the system we have right now," she said, "and grow it by having a public option for health care."
She continued, "Let's start with ways to bring down costs and create a public option buy in that people can afford."
She said the government needs the ability to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies, something she said her opponent Rep. Roger Marshall voted against.
"We have got to bring down cost of medication," she said.
Infrastructure
Bollier discussed the need to expand access to high-speed broadband, especially in rural areas of northwest Kansas.
"People need that not only for education right now, but for telemedicine. We need broadband so people will want to stay in these towns or come to live," she said. "People are finding that big cities might not be what they are cracked up to be during this crisis.
" 'I might like that smaller area better, but I need that internet access,' " she said.
Bollier said she has a strong record on supporting infrastructure in the Kansas Legislature, voting to end the Brownback tax plan that was diverting funds from the Kansas transportation plan.
"If we are going to get our products to market around this country," she said. "We are going to have to have roads to get it there."
Agriculture
Bollier said she has voted on issues critical to agriculture during her full tenure in the Kansas Legislature.
"I know what people need, and the best thing is that I am willing to listen," she said.
She said tariff's have hurt Kansas farmers. Bollier said she would work to improve foreign relations and reopen markets for Kansas products.
"Instead of ending or hurting those relationships, we need to be building those markets," Bollier said. "Once you lose those trade agreement, it is hard to get them back."
Bollier said Washington is broken.
"We need someone who will stand up for the people. I will continue to do that, and I will be committed to service to Kansans and their families," she said.
She said she is a moderate and will continue that record in Washington.
Bollier grew up as a Republican and switched parties two years ago because she said she felt she was at odds with the Republican leadership in the state that would not support public education, refused to expand Medicaid and put in place the Brownback tax plan.
"At some point, you have to say, this isn't working. My values have not changed. My roots have not changed," she said.