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5 Counties. Nowhere To Deliver A Baby | Casey Scott · Breaking The Meta

• Mike Winson: Hello everyone and welcome to Breaking the Meta. My name is Mike Winston. Today we are sitting down with Casey Scott, who is running for Missouri's second district. Hello, Casey. How are you doing today? Casey Scott: Hi, I'm fantastic. How are you? Mike Winson: I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to sitting down and learning more about you and what you hope to do for the people of your district. to start off, could you just give us a little background on who you are and why you decided to run for Congress in the first place? Because in twenty twenty six, that feels like a crazy thing to do. Casey Scott: It absolutely was. yeah, so I'm a Trenton native. I've lived here my entire life, with the exception of the years that I lived in St. Joe when I was going to radiology school. so I'm a mother to two girls. I work in healthcare. I've worked in healthcare for the last fifteen years. And other than that, not much about me, but as as far as my motivation for running, I'm frustrated. with lack of access to care, with our public schools losing funds and continuing to lose funds. You know, my children are in the public school system and they benefit from that. frustrated with misinformation, Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: especially performance politics, because a lot of that came from this district with the last legislative session. So Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: and I A few people, a few friends had reached out to me and suggested, you know, like file, run, do something. And it took me a gosh, probably f four hours this decision was made. So it's been travel Mike Winson: Wow. Casey Scott: by fire. I've done pretty good as far as, you know, learning, learning the ropes, keeping up with things. But I'm at that age where, you know, and but like I feel like the older I get, the more empathetic I become, the more passionate, Mike Winson: Mm-hmm. Casey Scott: the more caring. And that and that may come from working in healthcare as well. But Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: nothing's going to change if we don't take initiative to fix it. So that's kind of where I'm at with running is I'm just gonna put my money where my mouth is, stop complaining online, maybe try to start doing something about it. Mike Winson: Yeah. so I'm looking at your your website right now and there's a quote from you that says, I believe the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. If you trust me to serve you, I will trust you to speak up, I will listen, I will learn, I will show up. What are the people of your district telling you is the problem? Casey Scott: It's multi there's so many. Mike Winson: Mm-hmm. Casey Scott: so I I know that our our superintendents are anticipating a loss of funding for the next school year. So they're having to face cutting staff, they're having to face cutting programs. we're already quote in a hole with our public funding for our Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: or with our school funding from our public tax dollars. I personally have witnessed issues where people have you know, my my primary practice or or what I do is medical imaging. So I'm an MRI technologist and, you know, I'm I've witnessed times where people have had to been diverted to other facilities to receive care. And an example that I give would be any type of medical imaging for, you know, people who have pacemakers or complex devices that require you know, extensive research, knowledge of physics and how they interact with the body and knowing how to do those type of examinations so that we're not steering people away. So, you know, like you have this ig this example right in front of you of somebody who needs this needs this exam, needs this test, they have this issue, like I can be the one to help solve that problem for them. And Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: and a lot of times people can tell you what they're struggling with, prescription prices going up. Healthcare. I personally pay $623 a month for my health insurance. And medication that was covered when I worked for a hospital was $10 a month. And the same insurance company, it's $132. So I'm not the only one feeling that. groceries are expensive, gas is expensive. I live in a very I think our district average for annual salary is anywhere from thirty two thousand to forty thousand dollars a year. So people are struggling in this area. Mike Winson: Wow. Casey Scott: we have and and like I said, I'm gonna get off on a tirade or a rant, but there's Mike Winson: You're fair fine. Casey Scott: there's nowhere to deliver a baby in the five counties that Mike Winson: Wow. Casey Scott: I represent. We lost our last OB in twenty twenty three. Mike Winson: So where's the closest O B? Casey Scott: So the it de and it's dependent upon where patients will seek their care. So at one one hospital they partner with Liberty. And so patients will see one of our family family physicians, not nobi, and some of the family physicians who do see our patients have we've had a conversation about how frustrated they are because they don't feel qualified to help with complex cases for patients who have to see. OBGYN, but they lack transportation. They lack the ability to get there. Mike Winson: Mm-hmm. Casey Scott: And that's such an issue here is lack of access to so many things. Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: but I mean patients, the I know that Trent and Shilcothy are affiliated with St. Luke's and BJC. And the model, the hybrid model of what they call, is they will deliver their their babies at St. Luke's North or the Plaza or South in Kansas City. So that's Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: a hundred miles away. Mike Winson: Wow. Casey Scott: That leaves I mean, for emergencies, for women delivering babies, there's it's non existent. It is. Mike Winson: non-existent. Wow. I mean, one of the other problems that I have found is across the board, regardless of the of the party that we're that you're that you align with, is this idea of accountability or the lack thereof when it comes to our representatives. What does accountability look like to you? How do you hope to be held accountable by your district when you're in office? Casey Scott: I think I think coming back home and showing up and showing your face in town halls is the first I would reference probably Sam Graves, who's very good at you know, he's on the national level, very good at ignoring his constituents and he's not hosted a town hall in twenty four years. but it it's going to come with getting back to people, having conversations, allowing them to be a part of the process because I don't Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: I don't know everything and I have no problem saying that at all. So, you know, it focusing on the issues that matter at home and and not telling our librarians that they can't put pornography in their library at the schools. I mean, that's a a bill that was drafted and sponsored out of this district and it just blows my mind, you know, like yes. And as a Mike Winson: Yeah. That's how we're spending our time. Casey Scott: Exactly. And as a professional who has had years of training and education in what I do, I feel like librarians probably you know, I can give that respect to somebody and give them that autom autonomy, but I feel like that's pretty straightforward, you know, like we're this is how we're we're spending our time. Again, yeah, the Missouri Born Alive Bill, I won't I won't get on that, but yes. Mike Winson: Well, I guess so there are Missouri has been in the news a lot for some very interesting actions. Casey Scott: Yes. Mike Winson: what are some of the things that that they have done, especially recently, that have affected you and and your district that you hope to help with if you if and when you win? Casey Scott: talking about on the national level? Are we talking about our friends Mike Winson: I mean, whatever you however you hope to help, well no like what what what are what are those what are those things that you hope to do the most? What are the places where you hope to start? Casey Scott: Access to care, healthcare, abortion bans, making it to where women don't have to worry about getting the health care that they need and that providers aren't afraid to treat their Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: patients. you know, public education is one of my focuses as well as rural healthcare. And it's multifactorial in how you fix these issues, but those are probably the two at the forefront. And as as far as the other issues and and going along, I'm I'm starting to learn more and more about voters in this district. And I've reached out to our veterans. And I feel like everything kind of has a root crop a root cause. You know, there's it's lack of access, it's lack of funding, it's lack of support, and especially Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: in rural areas. so they all kind of like Venn diagram over each other and how they're related. So transportation's a big issue. Well, transportation's a big issue for public schools, transportation's a big issue for patients, for veterans. So all of these all of these things combined together just affect all of the areas themselves. Mike Winson: Yeah. It's It's very interesting to me as I've been interacting with so many candidates across the country. How How similar, let yet different everybody it every district is obviously very different, more rural, different areas of the country. And yet somehow there's those, there's so many things that just really bind bind everyone together, which always makes it weird to me when we think of how separate and and divisive it feels right now because we are dealing with so many of the same problems. As you've walked around and talked with people, what is what has been the experience, especially after everything that's happened on a national and a in and a state level in your state? What's the experience been like talking to to people that may have been his historically conservative? And you come up and you interact and you're like, I'm a Democrat. And it's like, how how what kind of response are you getting? Casey Scott: I I genuinely feel as I've always been an approachable person. and I've I've again kind of worked on that technique, that skill in healthcare as well, because you have to make it to where people can feel like they can talk to you, come to you with things. Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: we're not there are some things that we're not that far off on together. so whenever I talk to some of the conservative people who identify as conservative, we're we're pretty aligned as far as access to abortion, you know, that should be between a woman and her physician. And they have insight and opinions on when or when it shouldn't happen, but that's that's not something I delve into because I'm completely the opposite spectrum. and I think I think amendment five and amendment four has really brought people together. I know I've had a lot of conversations with Republicans who identify as Republicans, those on the other side of the aisle A lot of them are older. they Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: utilize Social Security. They don't have an income that would help sustain that difference. So I think I think there's some there's a little bit of unification on the issues and in data centers. That's a hot topic here right now. I'm finding that I have some common opinions and agreements with a lot of my opponents as well. So I think that this election is definitely going to be one where people vote country over party, and I hope that's what they do. I genuinely do. I think after 2024 and amendment three passing, yet it's still being held up, has kind of opened some people's eyes. It's Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: set a precedent that our lawmakers won't listen to us. And Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: especially, you know, with amendment five. Anybody who's on social security is going to it's going to hurt. So they've seen they've seen a precedent set and Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: I think it's starting to resonate. Mike Winson: one of the other things you talk about as one of your key issues is veterans. Do you want to go a little into that and what you hope to do for the veterans of your district and of the state? Casey Scott: Yes. So they are also facing gosh, like healthcare access. so for some of our veterans, they can receive care close to home. but there are processes and there are complex applications that they have to go through in order to receive that care. So that they a lot of times they're having to drive to Lanexa. And some of our veterans are They're getting up there as far as age goes and they don't have transportation. And I know some of our organizations here in town have a van that will help transport them. Well, nobody's paid to drive that van. Nobody's compensated. it Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: was they were just kind of given this van without a driver. So these these Mike Winson: That's great. Casey Scott: it is. It's it's awful, honestly, but they don't have access to A ther like they have a therapist that comes maybe once or twice a week. And we have a lot of mental health issue, a lot of suicide in this area. I'm actually attending the Northwest suicide prevention organization that kind of covers the area I live in. And it's ran through a couple people. I think they do have some sex all around the district, but There's no therapist on like on Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: site. There's there's telehealth. but we can't expect people to know how to access and use a computer. And whenever they are seeking therapy, it takes a lot to get to that point. So any barriers that exist in the way, especially technology or especially whenever they are thinking that they want to see a somebody in person and not be on a six-month wait list. recruiting those barriers. But back to our veterans. Again, tangents. I'm sorry. Mike Winson: You're fine. No, you're good. Casey Scott: yeah. So back to our veterans. You know, they they do have a a therapist, psychol not a psychologist, but a therapist who comes on site once or twice a month, but he can't prescribe medications. Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: I've oft I've heard our veterans of foreign wars describe their PTSD as ghosts. and when they when they struggle with the ghosts. you know, they don't have the support they need. We also have a hidden homelessness problem, especially in Grandy County. And I was not aware of that until I started reaching out and trying to learn about these issues. And it's people couch surfing. It's not somebody lying on the street. but again, lack of access to the things they need. Mike Winson: I want to do a little bit of future casting. So if let's assume November comes around and and you win, congratulations. let's assume that or not, let's assume once that happens, January comes around and you are sworn in as the representative of the second district. What are the first bills? What are the first things that you hope to put forth? in your legislature. Casey Scott: I love the optimism. I'm probably going to be learning the ropes and navigating a lot of things more in the beginning. Not naive to that. However, we've got to find a way to incentivize more physicians, more OBGYNs coming to our area. We've got to make Mike Winson: Mm. Casey Scott: it where they're not going to be afraid to practice medicine. and that means taking abortion bans head on and and challenging that narrative and the pro life rhetoric, maternal health care is lacking. And you know I've told you that we have no OBs within our within my five districts, childcare, affordable child care. We and and even access to child care. A a lot of what I'm focused on is what I'm experiencing myself and what I have experienced as a working parent, as a working mother. Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: And that's primarily where my focus is. I mean, everything that affects me and the kids and my friends and their kids, getting enough teachers in our school. Mike Winson: Yeah. Do you do you foresee having to do more work at a state level because I know you don't focus on the federal level, obviously, because you're so focused on the state. Do you see that you as a state representative having to do more work than maybe has been done before because the federal government is unfortunately pulling back in so many ways that used to help? The people of your district? Casey Scott: When you say more more work, are you like more research, more resources? it's Mike Winson: More resources, more Casey Scott: gonna it's gonna take a lot of work. I mean, it's yes, it's gonna take me finding the right people to lean on to help guide me. I've I've reached out to a couple organizations who help with, you know, writing laws. one that I've asked for an endorsement from as well, and what resources exist. what can I utilize to my benefit? It's it's going to be like starting a completely new job or going back to college. There's it's going to be a lot, but it doesn't bother me. It doesn't worry me. I can do it. Mike Winson: Yeah. for anyone that has listened to everything that we've talked about and heard everything that you've said, what are one or two things that no matter what you'd want them to know about you and your campaign? Casey Scott: Issues affect all of us, and no matter what side of the fence you're on, I want you to genuinely feel like you can come to me and have a conversation and understand there are things we're not going to disagree on, but I we have to focus on the issues that are hurting people first and foremost, and we have to learn how to put away our personal bias or our misunderstandings and be open minded that things are much more nuanced than what they seem and not quite as black and white. But it takes work for both of us. But I wanna make yeah. Mike Winson: Yeah. Yeah. That if if if we could get to a point where people could realize that the world is not black and white, I think we'd just I think that would be better as a whole. So much better. Casey Scott: Yes. That's true. Which and you know, listen, I I struggle with black and white sometimes myself. And it's something I've a skill I've had to learn. So it can be done. Mike Winson: Yeah. for anyone that wants to learn more about you and support you whether financially or volunteer, where can they find you? Casey Scott: They can find me on socials. I have a Facebook page, I have an Instagram, a TikTok. all of these links are actually housed on my website. I am absolutely looking for volunteers, people to help campus. That's my main ask. I've been very fortunate with fundraising. so lots of support, a lot of small dollar donations, majority from this district, which is great. So that gives me hope. but Casey's Yeah, Casey Scott from Missouri.com. there's a volunteer section where you can fill out your information, submit it, goes to a forum. We can reach out to you. but yeah, volunteers, people to to help with, you know, canvassing, because the the time's gonna come where I'm gonna have to cover all five districts. And it's a lot. And I'm a working mother and I still have a nine to five. And yes, Mike Winson: Yeah. Casey Scott: my girls are very active as well. So I need all of them. Mike Winson: Well, Casey, thank you for for coming on here and spending a little time with us and allowing us to get to know you and what you hope to do for the people of of your district. I appreciate it. Casey Scott: Yes. Thank you for having me, Mike. Mike Winson: Yeah. for everyone else that has listened this far, thank you so very much. Please hit all those buttons down below. Like, subscribe, share, comment. It all helps it make it possible for me to keep doing what I'm doing, which is talk to amazing people like Casey right here, who are trying to do. Things in the way that we keep saying we want things done, which is be held accountable. you know, have hard conversations, create real change for people in a way that can actually help us. Surprise, shocker, I know, but that's what we're looking to do. So please, please, please do all that. Please watch these videos, share these videos. It's so important. And for those of you that may be new to this podcast, just so you know, breaking the meta is about having con hard conversations when necessary. Fighting to break the status quo and the idea that all people, no matter your race, religion, gender, or identity, deserve rights, respect, dignity, and safety. Again, Casey, thank you so much for being here. And for everyone else, we'll see you next time on Breaking the Meta. Bye, guys.