Latest / Pharmacy Podcast Network / Pharmacy & Policy: The Power of Legislative Collaboration | Executive Dose

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Pharmacy & Policy: The Power of Legislative Collaboration | Executive Dose · Pharmacy Podcast Network

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Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
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Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy podcast Network.
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Speaker 1: Welcome to Executive Dose, the podcast where pharmaceutical leadership meets
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Speaker 1: unfiltered insight. Hosted by Stephen Beckman, CEO of Your All Pharma,
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Speaker 1: Each episode explores the complex forces shaping today's pharmaceutical industry,
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Speaker 1: from global supply chain stress and regulatory shakeups to innovation
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Speaker 1: in branded and generic drug markets. Join us as we
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Speaker 1: engage sea level leaders and decision makers in candid conversations
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Speaker 1: about navigating disruption, driving growth, and preparing for the next
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Speaker 1: era of pharmaceutical transformation. Curiosity leads, strategy follows. This is
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Speaker 1: the Executive Dose.
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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to the Executive Dose. This is special
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Speaker 2: kicking off twenty twenty six with a very powerful interview.
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Speaker 2: I think of our independent community pharmacies, I think of
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Speaker 2: our hospital systems. I'm thinking of specialty pharmacy. So many
1:23
Speaker 2: things that are that are changing within the nation, and
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Speaker 2: I think how important it is if you are a
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Speaker 2: pharmacy operator owner to engage and educate and partner with
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Speaker 2: your state representatives.
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Speaker 1: Well.
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Speaker 2: Steven Beckman, host of the executive dose. We are proud
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Speaker 2: to have our own state representatives in the Studio State
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Speaker 2: Representative fifty first district in the state of Pennsylvania.
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Speaker 3: Charity Krupa.
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Speaker 2: Charity, this is that you're here.
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Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really you
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Speaker 4: know Todd.
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Speaker 5: When I first took office, and I've I've been in
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Speaker 5: now about three years, just over three years, and I
2:05
Speaker 5: never intended to be on this side of politics. It
2:08
Speaker 5: was an opportunity when the time came that I looked
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Speaker 5: around and the people that were stepping up to be
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Speaker 5: in this position. Most of them were people I knew
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Speaker 5: and I didn't necessarily trust, and I.
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Speaker 4: Thought, you know what, now's the time to step up.
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Speaker 5: But talk what I remember about you, which you were
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Speaker 5: one of the very first people who reached out to
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Speaker 5: my office. And I'm not sure if you remember or not,
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Speaker 5: but you came to my office out on twenty one
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Speaker 5: and we had a conversation about pharmacy issues. And I
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Speaker 5: really really appreciate both of your experience and your education,
2:40
Speaker 5: and you're willing to talk about these issues. So thank
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Speaker 5: you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
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Speaker 6: Well, Charity, we are very happy to have you, And
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Speaker 6: you know, I think what's first of all is our
2:50
Speaker 6: thanks to you. We always thank our veterans and our
2:53
Speaker 6: first responders, but I think we should always extend it
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Speaker 6: to the people that give up themselves to serve others.
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Speaker 6: And obviously you do that within your role as state representative. So,
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Speaker 6: as Todd said, the executive dose is really about dialoguing,
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Speaker 6: taking forward ideas, sharing them, opening the doors, letting people
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Speaker 6: see more of what's happening, so that we can find
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Speaker 6: more reasonable and powerful outcomes of change that we want
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Speaker 6: to make. And obviously healthcare, there's a lot of things
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Speaker 6: that are good, and there's a lot of things that
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Speaker 6: we probably want to change and make better. So maybe
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Speaker 6: we just start and give the audience a little bit
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Speaker 6: about your passion for this area and healthcare and what
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Speaker 6: you hope to hopefully accomplish in terms of your role
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Speaker 6: as representative, and then we'll talk about a couple of
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Speaker 6: specific topics that are near and dear to you.
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Speaker 4: Good, thank you. So just a tiny bit about my background.
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Speaker 5: I am attorney by trade, farm girl at heart. So
3:51
Speaker 5: my family and I, both my husband and I grew
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Speaker 5: up on farms.
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Speaker 4: We're more hobby farmers now.
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Speaker 5: But we may call our own Hey have beef, cattle,
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Speaker 5: have horses, dogs, pigs, pheasants, you name it. And I really,
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Speaker 5: I really, really believe that we need people in Harrisburg
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Speaker 5: and DC, on our school boards, on our local councils
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Speaker 5: that don't necessarily want to be there, but they're there
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Speaker 5: because it often a personal sacrifice, because they want to
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Speaker 5: serve the community. So as much as I I nothing
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Speaker 5: would bring me more pleasure than never leaving the farm,
4:22
Speaker 5: but I.
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Speaker 4: Think that we need people to step up.
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Speaker 5: And one of my goals is state representative, and I
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Speaker 5: represent the fifty first House district, which is the southern
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Speaker 5: half of Faith County.
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Speaker 4: Which is very rural. We're underprivileged, and.
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Speaker 5: You really have to fight, so to speak, to get
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Speaker 5: your piece of the pie. And sometimes that fight is
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Speaker 5: in Harrisburg. Sometimes that fight is locally. But in rural
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Speaker 5: America right now, healthcare is such a hot topic. It
4:49
Speaker 5: is it is even in your in your cities and
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Speaker 5: your your blighted areas everywhere right now.
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Speaker 4: So I know that.
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Speaker 5: We have Uniontown Hospital in my district, which is in
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Speaker 5: the last few years, WBU Medicine has stepped in, and
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Speaker 5: I give WU Medicine all just so much gratitude that
5:08
Speaker 5: they came in and stepped in. Since they've come in,
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Speaker 5: they've reopened the labor and delivery unit, and that's another
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Speaker 5: hot topic across Pennsylvania right now. So there's certain places
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Speaker 5: in rural Pennsylvania that you can't even deliver a baby
5:21
Speaker 5: in a hospital in your home county, that you have
5:23
Speaker 5: to go out of county to do that, And obviously
5:25
Speaker 5: there's so many.
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Speaker 4: Issues with that.
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Speaker 5: But I do serve on the Health Committee in Harrisburg,
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Speaker 5: so a lot of these issues I get an opportunity.
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Speaker 4: To do a deep dive in. But my goal is
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Speaker 4: always always to.
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Speaker 5: Be educated three hundred and sixty degrees around the issue,
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Speaker 5: and healthcare should be a truly bipartisan issue.
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Speaker 3: Could agree with.
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Speaker 6: You more, and I think you know the supply chain
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Speaker 6: or value chain of healthcare from manufacturers like myself, down
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Speaker 6: through physicians, a nurses, physician assistance, all the healthcare workers
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Speaker 6: down to pharmacy, and ultimately patient has to be improved.
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Speaker 6: We need to do things that are better. And it's
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Speaker 6: going to take the village in this case, it's not
6:12
Speaker 6: going to take any one industry or any one area
6:14
Speaker 6: and we have a lot of dynamics now because we
6:17
Speaker 6: do have things that are being influenced at the federal level,
6:19
Speaker 6: but we're also see a lot of changes at the
6:21
Speaker 6: state level. And then a lot of the questions from
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Speaker 6: a business like mine is how we handling that, you know,
6:27
Speaker 6: how we handle all the changes of the state want
6:30
Speaker 6: or can quite frankly a state start the momentum on
6:33
Speaker 6: something in terms of good change, whether it be PBM
6:36
Speaker 6: reform or other things that we need to address to
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Speaker 6: ultimately serve the patient away because in the United States
6:43
Speaker 6: of America, no patient should we go out without being
6:46
Speaker 6: able to get good health care, as you mentioned, So
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Speaker 6: let's stop start with a couple of topics that I
6:51
Speaker 6: know you've been involved and you know this one is
6:54
Speaker 6: obviously an interesting one for a lot of reasons, and
6:58
Speaker 6: that is medical marijuana. And a lot of states have
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Speaker 6: taken charge and made available both from medical marijuana as
7:08
Speaker 6: well as recreational and obviously Pennsylvania is now going through
7:12
Speaker 6: the process there. So I want to want we talk
7:14
Speaker 6: a little bit about your thoughts on medical marijuana, where
7:18
Speaker 6: you believe it should be and how it might or
7:20
Speaker 6: might not help what we're doing. And then the impact
7:23
Speaker 6: there might be if recreational marijuana is is passed in
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Speaker 6: the state.
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Speaker 5: So I am it is no secret that I am
7:33
Speaker 5: a strong advocate against legalizing recreational marijuana for a host
7:39
Speaker 5: of reasons.
7:39
Speaker 4: And you know, if you look at studies that have.
7:41
Speaker 5: Come out of Colorado, who Colorado has been the test
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Speaker 5: subject right for legalizing recreational marijuana. And there's there's a
7:49
Speaker 5: that you see for every in Pennsylvania, Governor Shapiro says, you.
7:54
Speaker 4: Know, likes to tell that this will be a huge.
7:57
Speaker 5: Tax revenue increase if we would if we would legalize it,
8:01
Speaker 5: and we would tax it. And his budget address in
8:04
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five, he included the idea that revenue is
8:07
Speaker 5: from marijuana, you know, into his budget, which is just
8:12
Speaker 5: like fairy tale budgeting. You don't you don't include in
8:15
Speaker 5: your budget figures that for something that's currently illegal, both
8:19
Speaker 5: on the state and federal level. But so for every
8:22
Speaker 5: and out of the studies that have come out of Colorado,
8:24
Speaker 5: for every dollar that it generated in tax revenue, it
8:28
Speaker 5: costs society. I can't remember if it was four dollars
8:31
Speaker 5: and sixty cents or four dollars and eighty cents in
8:33
Speaker 5: societal harms such as everything from traffic accidents, homelessness, truancy issues,
8:40
Speaker 5: addiction issues obviously, And what people don't realize is the
8:44
Speaker 5: THHC that's being manufactured and processed and sold now is
8:48
Speaker 5: not the same marijuana that your grandma has grown in
8:50
Speaker 5: the backyard.
8:51
Speaker 4: I don't think either my.
8:52
Speaker 5: Grandma's were growing up, but you guys know what I mean.
8:55
Speaker 5: And there's and there is, So there's this level of
8:57
Speaker 5: toxicity that people don't understand, and there's all these studies
9:02
Speaker 5: about it leading to psychosis and mental health issues and suicide,
9:07
Speaker 5: and it's interesting. Tragically, it seems to have an increased
9:12
Speaker 5: effect on adolescent males. That group really gets hit hard
9:18
Speaker 5: with the suicide in the psychosis.
9:20
Speaker 4: And I firmly believe too that it just it leads
9:23
Speaker 4: to to bad decisions.
9:25
Speaker 5: So that being said, though, I do think that there
9:29
Speaker 5: is a legitimate purpose for medicinal marijuana. And so I've
9:34
Speaker 5: got I've got so many nurses in my immediate family.
9:37
Speaker 5: My mom's a nurse and I grew up with her.
9:40
Speaker 4: She's done everything.
9:41
Speaker 5: She worked two jobs when I was in elementary school
9:42
Speaker 5: and put my dad through law school. So she worked
9:44
Speaker 5: at the trauma unit in Ruby and Morgantown. She worked
9:48
Speaker 5: home health care in a hospice unit. She's working a
9:52
Speaker 5: nursing home now. My daughter's in her final semester at
9:56
Speaker 5: nursing school at penn State Fayette. My best friends and nurse,
9:58
Speaker 5: my sister in laws and nurse, so I really appreciate
10:01
Speaker 5: having them behind me. And I remember one of the
10:03
Speaker 5: first times I talked, and this has been years ago,
10:05
Speaker 5: before I was even thinking about being in this position.
10:07
Speaker 4: You don't quote me on this, but I think they actually.
10:09
Speaker 5: Legalized medicinal marijuana before we did. And one of the
10:13
Speaker 5: things that she talked about, particularly in the nursing home setting,
10:16
Speaker 5: was when you had patients with dementia or cancer that
10:21
Speaker 5: you know, with the dementia patients, it would increase their
10:23
Speaker 5: appetite with the cancer of patients obviously in terms of
10:26
Speaker 5: pain control.
10:27
Speaker 4: You know, the one story that always I've got three.
10:29
Speaker 5: Children in the story about the child or children that
10:32
Speaker 5: have epilepsy. You know, those are legitimate reasons why we
10:37
Speaker 5: should be doing this, but what has happened in Pennsylvania
10:41
Speaker 5: is it's become.
10:42
Speaker 4: A free for all.
10:43
Speaker 5: And even in my private law practice before stepping into
10:45
Speaker 5: this role, I'd have clients tell me that they would
10:47
Speaker 5: do one telehealth visit, claim that they had some kind
10:51
Speaker 5: of anxiety, and boom, They've got a prescription for medical marijuana.
10:57
Speaker 4: So one thing that.
10:58
Speaker 5: I've learned since being which I mean that's even as
11:00
Speaker 5: a lay person, you know, before stepping into the public role.
11:03
Speaker 5: You know, there were a lot of red flags with that.
11:06
Speaker 5: And so when I when I this term is the
11:08
Speaker 5: first term I've served on the Health Committee, and you know,
11:11
Speaker 5: one of the big concerns, and again this was by
11:13
Speaker 5: partisan people on both sides of the out recognize this
11:15
Speaker 5: is an issue that and I'm going to pull up
11:18
Speaker 5: there was a January twenty twenty five Spotlight article that
11:22
Speaker 5: talked about a small number of doctors were approving the
11:28
Speaker 5: medical marijuana cards. And forgive me if I if I don't,
11:31
Speaker 5: I don't want to misquote this so.
11:33
Speaker 6: That in terms of whether it's drugs or miracle marijuana,
11:36
Speaker 6: and I agree with you, there are legit My daughter
11:39
Speaker 6: suffers from chronic migraine since she was six years old. Yeah,
11:43
Speaker 6: I think that's the challenge is how can we continue
11:48
Speaker 6: to service patients their need, whether it be pain management,
11:52
Speaker 6: legitimate anxiety or mental health and things like epilepsy or migraine.
11:59
Speaker 6: But before you go onto that, before I wanted to
12:01
Speaker 6: go back to one thing you said, because I didn't
12:03
Speaker 6: want to lose the thought of it. You were making
12:06
Speaker 6: the comment about the governor's budget, and one of the
12:11
Speaker 6: questions I always had is, it's always great when you say, hey,
12:14
Speaker 6: we do X, and we'll get why and it will
12:17
Speaker 6: go to where it should go. I think one of
12:20
Speaker 6: the challenges I always assume as a resident of the
12:24
Speaker 6: state is that they generate all this money, but it's
12:27
Speaker 6: not really appropriated or allocated back to the things that
12:31
Speaker 6: they really are selling it for. So in case, if
12:34
Speaker 6: you were going to do something like make a marijuana legalize,
12:38
Speaker 6: then it should go back to the health. But there's
12:41
Speaker 6: a good chance that allowed that money, if it was
12:43
Speaker 6: actually taxed and received, would be going to all kinds
12:46
Speaker 6: of places. But not Well is that a pair of statement.
12:49
Speaker 4: Oh, it absolutely is.
12:50
Speaker 5: And I think it's very telling that in these conversations
12:53
Speaker 5: about legalizing it, a part of that tax revenue was
12:56
Speaker 5: always earmarked for a certain amount of societal harms, you know.
13:02
Speaker 4: Such as the addiction issues, and so, I mean, so.
13:06
Speaker 5: It amazes me that as as the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth.
13:11
Speaker 5: And I'm an idealist, so I'm always disappointed.
13:14
Speaker 4: I wish I was a realist, but I'm not. But
13:16
Speaker 4: is that really?
13:17
Speaker 5: Is that really where we want to build Pennsylvania?
13:22
Speaker 4: And I mean right now? And they'll argue that.
13:24
Speaker 5: All the states around us, or most of the states
13:26
Speaker 5: around us, have legalized it, so we're supposedly losing that
13:29
Speaker 5: text revenue because people are going across the borders.
13:32
Speaker 4: But two things that come to mind with that.
13:35
Speaker 5: I would love it if Pennsylvania became the place that
13:38
Speaker 5: families wanted.
13:39
Speaker 4: To move to as the safe haven.
13:41
Speaker 5: So you can walk up the street with your family
13:44
Speaker 5: and people aren't, you know, visibly high and that you've got.
13:47
Speaker 4: This and forgive me And I am sybethic, you know.
13:50
Speaker 4: And you mentioned your daughter.
13:51
Speaker 5: So I don't mean to stereotype, but I think with
13:54
Speaker 5: broad recreational use, and I hear people talking about certain
13:58
Speaker 5: beaches that they like to go to that now it's
14:00
Speaker 5: no longer what they perceive as a family. We're in
14:02
Speaker 5: a place because when you're walking up to the boardwalk,
14:06
Speaker 5: that the that the smell of marijuana is so overpowering.
14:09
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you.
14:10
Speaker 5: Even right in Union Town, we've got a medical marijuana
14:13
Speaker 5: facility in the dispensary and it's just up the road
14:15
Speaker 5: from our election bureau, and and it it is an
14:19
Speaker 5: overpowering odor that that I can't imagine how much worse
14:24
Speaker 5: that would be. And in some of these proposals one
14:28
Speaker 5: that was rammed through the House this session, they wanted
14:31
Speaker 5: to basically put a plot shop on every corner, and
14:34
Speaker 5: they wanted to take away local municipalities rights.
14:37
Speaker 4: And I believe in local controls.
14:39
Speaker 5: So right now in my district, there's several municipalities that
14:41
Speaker 5: are dry municipalities. They don't want, you know, alcoholic beverages served,
14:47
Speaker 5: you know, within their within their jurisdiction. Why would we
14:51
Speaker 5: want to take the right away for a municipality to
14:53
Speaker 5: be able to say that they that they can do
14:55
Speaker 5: that or can't do that with respect to marijuana.
14:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with you.
14:59
Speaker 6: I I do believe that most people would agree with
15:03
Speaker 6: the concept that there is enough data now to suggest
15:07
Speaker 6: that marijuana does play a medicinal role in very specific areas.
15:13
Speaker 6: So that's channel one. Channel two is the abuse of
15:16
Speaker 6: that to kind of broaden out to less very specific
15:21
Speaker 6: management in healthcare that people are getting cards and we
15:25
Speaker 6: should try to control that and reduce that. And then
15:27
Speaker 6: there's recreational and I think people do see that there's
15:30
Speaker 6: a clear difference between recreational and medicinal marijuana, and we
15:34
Speaker 6: should continue to be able to find ways to manage
15:38
Speaker 6: that more effectively.
15:39
Speaker 3: And oh, I'm sorry, go ahead, Oh no, go ahead please.
15:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well and so and back to the Spotlight article.
15:44
Speaker 5: And this was when House Built twenty eight came into play,
15:48
Speaker 5: which I'm a co sponsor on. So with the Spotlight article,
15:52
Speaker 5: and I think there were some other articles around that time,
15:55
Speaker 5: but there were It indicated that there were nineteen hundred
15:59
Speaker 5: approved practitioners who were eligible or approved to do prescriptions
16:05
Speaker 5: for the medical marijuana.
16:07
Speaker 4: And then when you look at.
16:08
Speaker 5: The data of about thirteen hundred those doctors who issued
16:13
Speaker 5: at least one medical marijuana certificate, and this is twenty
16:15
Speaker 5: twenty two data. Most issued fewer than one hundred, but
16:20
Speaker 5: there were three doctors who each issued more than eleven
16:25
Speaker 5: thousand certifications individually.
16:28
Speaker 4: So Matt, you're talking about one year.
16:30
Speaker 5: There is no physical way possible that these medical providers
16:33
Speaker 5: had had an opportunity to interact with eleven hundred patients
16:37
Speaker 5: in a meaningful way that would have justified this type
16:41
Speaker 5: of prescription.
16:42
Speaker 4: So the lawmakers and again bipartisan.
16:46
Speaker 5: Focus on this is that the way we are doing
16:49
Speaker 5: medical marijuana and Pennsylvania has huge issues. And in addition
16:53
Speaker 5: to the prescription issue, there's also an issue with the
16:57
Speaker 5: labs and the actual content of the substance that's being
17:01
Speaker 5: produced and given out to the public. That there is
17:04
Speaker 5: major inconsistencies and no requirements that that meet particular lab
17:09
Speaker 5: test work.
17:10
Speaker 4: So there's an.
17:10
Speaker 5: Inconsistency that although it's although it's being prescribed and a
17:14
Speaker 5: particular product is being labeled as X, Y or Z,
17:17
Speaker 5: it's there's not that safeguard of ensuring that that's actually
17:21
Speaker 5: what it is, like a quality control kind of issue.
17:23
Speaker 4: And when in the pharmacy world.
17:25
Speaker 5: I would think that you guys, you know that that
17:26
Speaker 5: would be very frightening to you.
17:28
Speaker 3: I want to make a comment of book.
17:30
Speaker 2: I feel like I'm the lorax of the trees and
17:33
Speaker 2: of the pharmacists. And there's an endocannabinoid system in every
17:38
Speaker 2: single human being and it plays part in how you
17:41
Speaker 2: react to THHC as well as CBD, which is the
17:45
Speaker 2: other side of the cannabis plant, and it's the it's
17:50
Speaker 2: the pharmacist that could dial into how a topical cream
17:57
Speaker 2: or a ingesting the vapor or taking in some other
18:03
Speaker 2: maybe it's a tablet. The administration of cannabis in any
18:08
Speaker 2: of the forms is so tied into the specific disease date,
18:12
Speaker 2: whether that's pain, whether that's mental health, whether that's like
18:15
Speaker 2: you were saying, charity with epilepsy. And we're giving these
18:20
Speaker 2: cards out based on the rubber stamp mentality of these
18:24
Speaker 2: physicians who aren't even medical medication experts. So if I
18:30
Speaker 2: were a ruler of the country, I would say, hey,
18:33
Speaker 2: number one, it should be medicinal only. Number two, it
18:37
Speaker 2: needs to be governed by our pharmacists who understand how
18:41
Speaker 2: is this impacting you based on sugar intake and other
18:45
Speaker 2: medications you're on and other things that you're experiencing. And
18:50
Speaker 2: if we could control it, even at the Pennsylvania level,
18:53
Speaker 2: where our pharmacists should be leading some of those decisions,
18:56
Speaker 2: then we're truly using it for medicinal and true using
19:00
Speaker 2: it for help.
19:01
Speaker 6: That's a really good point to Dispensaries are are not
19:05
Speaker 6: run by medical professionals, right, they're not. And I think
19:09
Speaker 6: there is a way to control that. And to your point, Charity,
19:12
Speaker 6: you know, we operate in the pharmaceutical world under GMP
19:16
Speaker 6: a good Manufacturing Practice and we are held to extremely
19:19
Speaker 6: high standards through the FDA and others to ensure the
19:22
Speaker 6: quality of our of our product meets the expectations. And
19:26
Speaker 6: I think there are things that we can do, and
19:28
Speaker 6: I think it starts with fixing or continue to fix
19:31
Speaker 6: and continue to evolve, to your point, to make sure
19:34
Speaker 6: how we are supporting medical marijuana properly. Yes, second step,
19:40
Speaker 6: if if there ever comes to the point where it does
19:43
Speaker 6: become legalized, we still have to do the same thing.
19:46
Speaker 3: At some point.
19:46
Speaker 6: We have to make sure that the product that's being
19:49
Speaker 6: produced is being produced under GMP, it's meeting the qualifications,
19:54
Speaker 6: and then it is dispensed through appropriate and tod I'm
19:58
Speaker 6: glad you said, because I never even thought every crossed
20:00
Speaker 6: my mind.
20:01
Speaker 3: Can you what they are? And we should put in
20:04
Speaker 3: through pharmacy, go ahead check?
20:05
Speaker 5: And well that makes me think of a broader issue too,
20:07
Speaker 5: And I'd never thought about a net lens and I
20:09
Speaker 5: appreciate that, but that that what that makes me immediately
20:14
Speaker 5: kind of flipped to is how sad it is that
20:18
Speaker 5: our small, mom and pop pharmacies are have been the
20:22
Speaker 5: victim of so much bad policy at the state and
20:25
Speaker 5: federal level. So the relationship, so I'm from Smithfield, grew
20:28
Speaker 5: up in Smithfield, you know, Jimmy Lenz Pharmacy. That's where
20:31
Speaker 5: we went, you know, most of most of our life
20:33
Speaker 5: until until you know, they closed Geese. It seems like yesterday,
20:36
Speaker 5: but it's probably been ten years ago or more.
20:39
Speaker 4: But the relationship that.
20:41
Speaker 5: My family and I had with him, and I remember
20:43
Speaker 5: a particular prescription that I think, I think it might
20:47
Speaker 5: have been for acne or something that when I was
20:48
Speaker 5: in high school, and I remember him pulling my mom
20:50
Speaker 5: aside and my my dermatologists prescribed it. And I remember him,
20:54
Speaker 5: you know, to tell my mom, do not give this
20:57
Speaker 5: to her, that this is linked to suicide and all
21:00
Speaker 5: these terrible, terrible things.
21:02
Speaker 4: And I just don't.
21:03
Speaker 5: And I don't want to say what chain pharmacy I
21:05
Speaker 5: use now, But you don't.
21:06
Speaker 4: You don't get that same interaction.
21:10
Speaker 5: And I think that that our our policies need to
21:13
Speaker 5: start focusing on our small businesses, whether they're pharmacies or
21:18
Speaker 5: or dentists or whatever it is, because you don't you
21:23
Speaker 5: just become a number. And what you said about the
21:25
Speaker 5: you know, our dispensaries, you know, in the labs that
21:29
Speaker 5: grow the medicinal the alleged medicinal marijuana, we are just
21:32
Speaker 5: the population is just a number. The individual is just
21:35
Speaker 5: a number. And you don't have that individual relationship, and
21:38
Speaker 5: you don't get you don't get. I don't think that
21:40
Speaker 5: there's that follow up in terms of and and everybody's
21:44
Speaker 5: is different, so their reaction to the product is going
21:47
Speaker 5: to be.
21:47
Speaker 4: Different as well.
21:48
Speaker 5: And I hear nobody talking about, well, you know, my
21:52
Speaker 5: medicine is being adjusted accordingly, and I think it's because
21:54
Speaker 5: of the lack of that relationship.
21:56
Speaker 6: Well, look at we know that there is a lot
21:58
Speaker 6: of issues and things that are broken in our system
22:01
Speaker 6: to deliver healthcare in the US, and that's the responsibility
22:04
Speaker 6: of drug manufacturers, to insurance companies, PBMs, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, everybody.
22:11
Speaker 6: But we have to It's such a big thing. It's hard,
22:14
Speaker 6: but we have to keep attacking it. And one of
22:16
Speaker 6: the things is that whether it's rural America or whether
22:20
Speaker 6: it's just pharmacy in general, is that the pharmacists used
22:25
Speaker 6: to play a huge role and then they kind of
22:26
Speaker 6: went away, and now what we're going to see is,
22:29
Speaker 6: I believe a renaissance with some of these small independent
22:32
Speaker 6: pharmacies because we've seen even the large chains like Write
22:36
Speaker 6: eight close. So what we're going to do is we're
22:38
Speaker 6: going to the dependency on a pharmacist to be able
22:43
Speaker 6: to extend and have additional certifications, which we talked on
22:46
Speaker 6: another podcast to make them even more valuable is going
22:49
Speaker 6: to be very important. But I want to wrap up
22:51
Speaker 6: the medical cannabis, so I think in summary and charity,
22:53
Speaker 6: I want you to have a final comment to is,
22:56
Speaker 6: look at a medical marijuana is not going to weigh
23:00
Speaker 6: quite frankly, and marijuana is not going to go away now.
23:03
Speaker 6: But I think what we've heard today is what's really
23:06
Speaker 6: really important is that we still have work to do. Yes,
23:10
Speaker 6: if it was my humble opinions, let's do what's right first.
23:13
Speaker 6: Let's let's get the medical marijuana thing better than it
23:16
Speaker 6: is now, because there's still holes in the system and
23:18
Speaker 6: how we're doing it and charity are great to bring
23:21
Speaker 6: those up. Whether or not recreational is going to happen,
23:25
Speaker 6: is something that either any one of us as an individual,
23:28
Speaker 6: even as a representative, because charity.
23:30
Speaker 3: I think what there's two hundred.
23:31
Speaker 6: And three state represent Yes, yes, you're a voice of
23:35
Speaker 6: one and a very important one. But you know, so
23:39
Speaker 6: if that does happen, if we have the medical marijuana
23:42
Speaker 6: side manage more properly, and then some of those lessons
23:46
Speaker 6: learned and things like that could probably have some positive
23:48
Speaker 6: influence if by chance something would happen on the recreational side.
23:53
Speaker 6: But I do think there are still significant concerns as
23:55
Speaker 6: you pointed out to just opening up the doors, and
23:59
Speaker 6: if we're making decisions on the health of our constituents
24:03
Speaker 6: based on generating tax revenue, and that's the only reason
24:06
Speaker 6: we're doing it, yeah, it doesn't seem to me to
24:08
Speaker 6: be the best reason to do it, right, So let's
24:11
Speaker 6: a transition.
24:11
Speaker 3: I know that.
24:14
Speaker 6: There's an House Bill one four four four which is
24:16
Speaker 6: really focused on small business and the ability to help
24:19
Speaker 6: provide health insurance, and that's something I know that you're
24:22
Speaker 6: also involved in, and that's important for a lot of reasons,
24:25
Speaker 6: one ensuring employees working for small companies have access to
24:30
Speaker 6: healthcare to making those companies competitive. So why don't we
24:34
Speaker 6: switch to that and give us some thoughts on where
24:37
Speaker 6: you think the importance of this bill and where it's
24:39
Speaker 6: going and what still needs to be done.
24:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, so a couple things.
24:43
Speaker 5: And I want to go back just for one second,
24:44
Speaker 5: House Bill twenty eight that was the coprime sponsor on
24:47
Speaker 5: that was my colleague Tim Towards six, So I just
24:49
Speaker 5: want to give him credit for that.
24:50
Speaker 4: The bill that you just mentioned.
24:52
Speaker 5: The prime sponsor is Valerie Gatos, and she really is
24:57
Speaker 5: well versed and educated on this issue, and it was
25:00
Speaker 5: a good I think it's a good transition that we
25:02
Speaker 5: were just talking about. And I pray that there is
25:04
Speaker 5: a renaissance of the local mom and pop pharmacist and
25:09
Speaker 5: I think that this bill could help them in that pursuit.
25:14
Speaker 5: And what this bill really the goal is is basically
25:18
Speaker 5: to give small businesses the opportunity to join together in
25:23
Speaker 5: order to be more competitive in the market for health
25:28
Speaker 5: premiums or healthcare plans and premiums for their employees.
25:32
Speaker 4: And I think that that's.
25:33
Speaker 5: An issue when you have a small pharmacy and you
25:36
Speaker 5: only have a handful of employees and your premiums are
25:39
Speaker 5: based on that number rather than a larger number, that
25:42
Speaker 5: your chain pharmacists have the advantage of having those bigger numbers,
25:46
Speaker 5: which makes their prices more competitive. This bill, if we
25:51
Speaker 5: were able to get it across the finish line, would
25:53
Speaker 5: give our small businesses, whether they were pharmacists, dentists, whatever, farmers,
25:58
Speaker 5: the opportunity to join together so that it would make
26:02
Speaker 5: their their finances go even further. And the small businesses
26:05
Speaker 5: across America just under attack, restaurants, you name it.
26:09
Speaker 4: So I think that this would be a really great thing.
26:11
Speaker 5: And I never looked at the limbs from the pharmacy,
26:13
Speaker 5: but I think it could help them get back on
26:15
Speaker 5: their feet as independence.
26:17
Speaker 6: Well I think again, well said, I mean, when when
26:19
Speaker 6: I look at my own my own career, my own life.
26:22
Speaker 6: I work for a company where I get a salary
26:24
Speaker 6: and I also get benefits, and those benefits are actually
26:28
Speaker 6: very very valuable. Sometimes it gets more in the shuffle
26:30
Speaker 6: because when people are looking at jobs, they're looking at
26:33
Speaker 6: what their you know, their annual compensation is, and they
26:37
Speaker 6: lose sight of the whether whatever they might be. Educational
26:41
Speaker 6: support obviously, healthcare, and we need to make and and
26:44
Speaker 6: and that becomes something most people do look at and
26:48
Speaker 6: look at it because I I know the value of
26:51
Speaker 6: what that is. So that also is a big reason
26:54
Speaker 6: we do is because it retains high quality people. So
26:58
Speaker 6: to your point, if we're trying to length in local
27:01
Speaker 6: small business where turnover is probably more significant, yeah, because
27:07
Speaker 6: they don't have some of these benefits. If we can
27:10
Speaker 6: create that dynamic, it's going to create more stability for
27:12
Speaker 6: the business, better, better profitability, retention of employees.
27:18
Speaker 3: Uh.
27:18
Speaker 6: And when all that stuff comes together, quality always goes up.
27:22
Speaker 6: I've never not seen in any business I've ever worked
27:24
Speaker 6: in if I have if I can retain my best employees,
27:27
Speaker 6: that's a good thing. If I if I can create sustainability, uh, consistency.
27:33
Speaker 3: In my business, that's a really good name.
27:35
Speaker 6: When those things start to pile up, the profit takes
27:38
Speaker 6: care of itself easy, or the ability to run a
27:40
Speaker 6: successful business takes care of itself.
27:43
Speaker 5: I do think the people that are when healthcare benefits
27:47
Speaker 5: and coverage become ultra important is sadly when somebody is sick,
27:52
Speaker 5: when when you've got you know, a spouse is sick,
27:55
Speaker 5: a child is sick. And I'm convinced that this is
27:58
Speaker 5: why a lot of people work for Faye Accounty. You know,
28:00
Speaker 5: the the their their wages are very low, but they
28:02
Speaker 5: get benefits with no you know, you know, pre Obamacare,
28:06
Speaker 5: there you had to find a plan that didn't have
28:08
Speaker 5: pre existing coverage, and a lot of times that meant
28:10
Speaker 5: tooking a job, taking a job that you otherwise.
28:12
Speaker 4: Not be happy with, might not be happy with.
28:15
Speaker 5: But I'll tell you a heartbreaking story I had with
28:17
Speaker 5: a constituent a few weeks ago, and I won't mention
28:21
Speaker 5: any names, but he and his wife have both been
28:23
Speaker 5: successful small business owners and he unfortunately has been diagnosed
28:29
Speaker 5: with some pretty significant and pretty rare medical issues and
28:34
Speaker 5: now so he's unable to maintain his small business because
28:38
Speaker 5: he was the heart of it.
28:40
Speaker 4: It was basically a one man show. And now his wife, who.
28:44
Speaker 5: Has had an extremely successful business that she really is
28:48
Speaker 5: the integral part of it as well. She's contemplating closing
28:52
Speaker 5: down her business and taking a job just so that
28:55
Speaker 5: they have the benefits they need. And this is where
28:57
Speaker 5: it breaks my heart that it's the middle class American
29:01
Speaker 5: that ends up and I'm gonna be volga for a second,
29:03
Speaker 5: that ends up being screwed, so to speak.
29:05
Speaker 4: You know, because if you are, if you're in.
29:07
Speaker 5: The poverty level and you're getting the state medical benefits,
29:10
Speaker 5: you're not worried about it. If you're independently wealthy, you're
29:13
Speaker 5: not worried about it. But it's the middle class person
29:15
Speaker 5: that has worked hard all their lives. Maybe they've maybe
29:18
Speaker 5: they've been able to pay off their own home, and
29:20
Speaker 5: then a lot of times you'll see that maybe they
29:22
Speaker 5: have a rental which then that rental property makes them
29:25
Speaker 5: ineligible for anything, and you end up that they want
29:29
Speaker 5: illness if they can end up bankrupting them.
29:32
Speaker 4: And then when they've worked so hard.
29:33
Speaker 5: To pass something on to their to their kids, that's
29:36
Speaker 5: all out the window.
29:37
Speaker 4: And that it's just that, and it's it's so wrong.
29:40
Speaker 5: We should be catering to the middle class working American
29:44
Speaker 5: who's going out and busting their butt every day because
29:47
Speaker 5: they they because they are responsible, and they're good community members,
29:51
Speaker 5: good constituents, and they are trying to do the best
29:54
Speaker 5: for themselves and their family.
29:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, it's amazing that one major event could
29:58
Speaker 6: have such a significant impact. Think and in the in
30:01
Speaker 6: the US, we should really not see that. And I
30:05
Speaker 6: have a significant other networks for the government, and she
30:08
Speaker 6: doesn't make a lot, but she has tremendous She actually
30:11
Speaker 6: has better health care than I do. And you know
30:14
Speaker 6: that is a real value and and and she's very
30:18
Speaker 6: happy to serve people. And the real value to her
30:21
Speaker 6: is the great healthcare insurance herself, uh and her family,
30:24
Speaker 6: so that that's really awesome. So I think when it
30:28
Speaker 6: comes to this type of thing is what it represents
30:32
Speaker 6: to me. And what's really important is that healthcare is
30:35
Speaker 6: extremely complicated. There is very large groups of influencers from
30:39
Speaker 6: insurance to drug manufacturers, to physicians and the healthcare providers.
30:46
Speaker 3: And what we know is that this is this.
30:49
Speaker 6: Is tough, but the goal has to be is at
30:52
Speaker 6: the end of the day, people can find insurance so
30:56
Speaker 6: that they can have good health care. We have to
30:59
Speaker 6: continue to provide products at a make medicine affordable and
31:03
Speaker 6: then accessible, and we have to fix the system that
31:08
Speaker 6: patients can also get to providers that should need. And
31:11
Speaker 6: we have to keep pharmacists like independent pharmacists. I actually
31:15
Speaker 6: go to an independent pharmacy in Perry Township and I
31:18
Speaker 6: switched all my prescriptions from one of the big national
31:22
Speaker 6: chains to them because when I go in there now
31:25
Speaker 6: and i've I've lost sight of that, they say, hey, Steve,
31:30
Speaker 6: and you do have a chance. But at the same time,
31:33
Speaker 6: because I'm in the industry, I'm in. I asked the
31:35
Speaker 6: owner of the of the pharmacy. I said, so, how
31:38
Speaker 6: many of your prescriptions that you're filling do you make
31:42
Speaker 6: a profit? And he said maybe fifty percent. So when
31:46
Speaker 6: you think about this, we have to understand that a
31:49
Speaker 6: pharmacist still has to.
31:50
Speaker 3: Be profitable, otherwise they can keep doors open. It has
31:53
Speaker 3: to be there.
31:54
Speaker 6: So we have to understand that the discourse and the
31:57
Speaker 6: dialogue and the interface really.
32:00
Speaker 3: Has to be robust.
32:01
Speaker 6: It has to be broad, and we have to get
32:03
Speaker 6: all the pieces together and start really talking about how
32:06
Speaker 6: afx B and BFx C, and only by that that
32:10
Speaker 6: we're going to start making a change. So charity one
32:14
Speaker 6: of the last topics I want to I'm going to
32:16
Speaker 6: surprise on you a little bit because it's a little
32:19
Speaker 6: bit maybe more dear to me as a manufacturer. One
32:23
Speaker 6: of the challenges that we're seeing out there is the
32:26
Speaker 6: impact in the industry between the federal and state. And
32:33
Speaker 6: obviously federal we're talking about things like FDA and all
32:36
Speaker 6: the things that we have to do, Medicaid, Medicare CMS
32:38
Speaker 6: and all the things that we do. But on the
32:40
Speaker 6: state level, one of the things that has become challenging
32:44
Speaker 6: for US, but also I think an opportunity in other area.
32:47
Speaker 6: The challenging area is things like now states are looking
32:50
Speaker 6: for ways to generate income, and many of the states
32:55
Speaker 6: around the country, we have to pay state licensing and
32:59
Speaker 6: now we're paying for SHARPS programs and we're paying for
33:02
Speaker 6: this as a manufacturer. So as a manufacturer, we're starting
33:06
Speaker 6: to get killed by a thousand cuts. Yeah, and when
33:10
Speaker 6: we're trying to keep costs low and the system is
33:15
Speaker 6: obviously issues that we were not to talk to doubt
33:18
Speaker 6: today about the influence of wholesalers and PBMs and how
33:21
Speaker 6: they play a role in this whole process. Is that
33:24
Speaker 6: something that you see the state continue to look at
33:27
Speaker 6: that to generate revenue, like in the absence of not
33:30
Speaker 6: doing marijuana or recreational marijuana. The states are obviously always
33:37
Speaker 6: challenged with budgets. What do you think about things like
33:41
Speaker 6: where the state comes in in terms of continuing to
33:44
Speaker 6: layer on these.
33:44
Speaker 3: Type of costs.
33:45
Speaker 6: That does make it difficult for certain businesses, whether it's
33:49
Speaker 6: for other to actually operate successfully in the state, you
33:53
Speaker 6: know what.
33:53
Speaker 5: So as a fiscally conservative representative, when I came into office,
33:58
Speaker 5: I was approached by a particular group to sign an oath,
34:00
Speaker 5: and I this is the only oath that I've taken
34:03
Speaker 5: because I'm not going to box myself. I make decisions
34:06
Speaker 5: based on what I think is the right thing, on
34:08
Speaker 5: the merit of the language of the bill itself, and
34:12
Speaker 5: so but the oath that I took, when I looked
34:14
Speaker 5: at it, it was like, well, I agree with all
34:16
Speaker 5: this anyway, you know. And it was basically limited government,
34:20
Speaker 5: not increasing taxes, not increasing fees, and where the and
34:24
Speaker 5: this isn't just a healthcare issue, it's across the board.
34:29
Speaker 5: And and until we take and what kind of the
34:32
Speaker 5: doge look at things? And I get so upset about fraud,
34:36
Speaker 5: waste and abuse, you know, before they we we need
34:39
Speaker 5: to take a hard look at how we're spending money
34:41
Speaker 5: and great programs sometimes and.
34:44
Speaker 4: I've seen this even in my own district.
34:47
Speaker 5: And and again, you know, it goes back to the
34:50
Speaker 5: middle class person becomes the victim because you see some
34:54
Speaker 5: welfare fraud.
34:54
Speaker 4: And abuse on one end of the spectrum.
34:57
Speaker 5: And as bad as that is, if you're able bodied
34:59
Speaker 5: and you're cheating as system and you could be out
35:01
Speaker 5: working and you choose not to, as bad as that is,
35:04
Speaker 5: it makes me a hundred times angrier to see a
35:07
Speaker 5: rich person or a wealthy individual who gets richer on
35:11
Speaker 5: the taxpayer dime because the government is divvying out money,
35:17
Speaker 5: often via some kind of a grant program or a contract,
35:21
Speaker 5: and so that type of.
35:23
Speaker 4: You know, that's abuse, you know when you are and at.
35:26
Speaker 5: The national level, when we were paying for transgender studies
35:29
Speaker 5: in third world countries.
35:31
Speaker 4: I mean, why don't they eliminate some of that.
35:33
Speaker 5: Instead of overburdening our businesses with excessive fines and fees.
35:38
Speaker 4: Now I can I can understand having a license.
35:41
Speaker 5: Fee that may that may make a particular agency fund itself,
35:47
Speaker 5: but but I mean, do we not already pay enough taxes?
35:50
Speaker 5: So no, I yes, I agree with you. Thank you
35:53
Speaker 5: for bringing that up. And I think this is just
35:55
Speaker 5: one example of where in America and the Commonwealth of
35:58
Speaker 5: Pennsylvania we need to tighten our belt and we need
36:02
Speaker 5: to let free market go, and we need to stop
36:04
Speaker 5: putting excessive red tape and fees on our people so
36:08
Speaker 5: that they can go out and flourish.
36:09
Speaker 4: Yeah.
36:10
Speaker 6: I appreciate that position that you have because I think
36:13
Speaker 6: for me, I always said, you know, I have never
36:17
Speaker 6: been overly political in my life, but being around it
36:21
Speaker 6: a lot more given my who I live with and
36:26
Speaker 6: getting involved with it. I think we all have a
36:28
Speaker 6: responsibilit I've always voted, I've always took that responsibility seriously.
36:32
Speaker 6: But I think we all have a responsibility to continue
36:35
Speaker 6: to engage in our community at some level. And that
36:38
Speaker 6: means you have to be involved in politics a little bit.
36:40
Speaker 6: But I think I always thought that the most important thing,
36:44
Speaker 6: and I think that's what you were saying, charity, is
36:46
Speaker 6: that get your house in order first, and then worry
36:49
Speaker 6: about what else you can do to help and will
36:51
Speaker 6: always help because that's the spirit of America and everything else,
36:54
Speaker 6: whether it's domestically or foreign. And so for me, I
36:58
Speaker 6: think that's what's really important about what you said. Let's
37:00
Speaker 6: make sure the stuff that we've already had in place
37:02
Speaker 6: and the things that we do, let's make sure that's
37:04
Speaker 6: working well and being managed well effective, because then you
37:06
Speaker 6: don't have to keep adding on and adding on and
37:09
Speaker 6: adding on and adding on a different thing here, which
37:11
Speaker 6: makes it more difficult or minimal, make us more frustrating.
37:15
Speaker 6: Now the businesses are trying to determine how they can
37:18
Speaker 6: continue to be successful. But if we if we can
37:22
Speaker 6: make it more simple. If we can make sure the
37:23
Speaker 6: things that we do have in place that are not
37:25
Speaker 6: going to change, and we know certain things aren't going
37:27
Speaker 6: to change, and we make them right, then you won't
37:28
Speaker 6: have to do all these other things. And it makes
37:30
Speaker 6: the free market, makes the economy work better, makes the
37:33
Speaker 6: access to medicine better, all those things that I do.
37:36
Speaker 6: So I appreciate that. Really your position, I think is
37:39
Speaker 6: very consistent with what we hope you know on our
37:42
Speaker 6: side as an industry, is that we can we can
37:45
Speaker 6: make sure that we can continue to invest in new drugs,
37:49
Speaker 6: invest in new ways to create value around not just
37:52
Speaker 6: on price, but on the value that we give down
37:54
Speaker 6: to patients. And that's one of the things that we're
37:56
Speaker 6: trying to do at your rouse that where our new
37:58
Speaker 6: corporate tagline is doing things differently. And as a company,
38:02
Speaker 6: our company, our industry is always just based on lowest price.
38:05
Speaker 3: Well, we kind of use that up right.
38:08
Speaker 6: Access to affordable, high quality medicines is the mantra that
38:12
Speaker 6: everybody's used for twenty five years. So my question to
38:14
Speaker 6: myself and to my team is we can't keep using that.
38:18
Speaker 6: So on that now, Okay, that's like the ticket into
38:20
Speaker 6: the game. So how we continue to look at ways
38:23
Speaker 6: to improve the way we can help our role in
38:26
Speaker 6: delivering healthcare in a more positive and more expansive way
38:29
Speaker 6: that actually reaches the patient. So that's one of the
38:31
Speaker 6: things we do. So I'm always here to dialogue with
38:35
Speaker 6: you and hopefully the chance to collectively maybe put our
38:38
Speaker 6: brains together and do some good things.
38:40
Speaker 3: So with this, what I'd like to do is close.
38:42
Speaker 6: Here's an opportunity just for you to share with the
38:46
Speaker 6: community any final thoughts you want. It has been amazing
38:50
Speaker 6: opportunity to talk to you. I hope that we will
38:52
Speaker 6: schedule this again and continue cost these topics, but I
38:57
Speaker 6: want to give you the floor and let you have
38:59
Speaker 6: a chance to what you would like to finish this
39:02
Speaker 6: podcast on.
39:03
Speaker 5: Then I find myself saying this anytime I get to
39:06
Speaker 5: talk to a crowd. I think for generations, Americans have
39:09
Speaker 5: had the benefit of sitting back and trusting their elected
39:12
Speaker 5: to the leaders and you know what was going on
39:15
Speaker 5: at the different levels of government, just it ran the
39:19
Speaker 5: way it was supposed to and right now, whether it's
39:22
Speaker 5: I mean everything from our local townships, the municipalities, our
39:25
Speaker 5: school boards, our water authorities, county level government, state federal
39:30
Speaker 5: it seems to be dysfunctional, and I think going back
39:34
Speaker 5: to for generations, people could turn a blind eye.
39:36
Speaker 4: And maybe didn't think about it.
39:37
Speaker 5: I was one of those people until about ten years
39:40
Speaker 5: ago when I decided to run for office. I lost,
39:43
Speaker 5: but God works in mysterious ways because it opened my
39:45
Speaker 5: eyes to politics.
39:46
Speaker 4: So my call to action I whether.
39:49
Speaker 5: You whether it's either either of you, or whether it
39:53
Speaker 5: is somebody listening at home. You know, I've met some
39:57
Speaker 5: people in Harrisburg that are absolutely genius. I've met some
40:01
Speaker 5: elected officials that I would not trust a babysit my cows.
40:04
Speaker 4: So you know, if you, if you feel.
40:06
Speaker 5: And if you and I'm looking for I'm not looking
40:09
Speaker 5: for more people that are corrupt. I'm not looking for
40:11
Speaker 5: more people that don't have a brain. But if you
40:14
Speaker 5: have a backbone and you're honest and you're ethical, and
40:17
Speaker 5: you're not afraid to take a hard stance when you're
40:20
Speaker 5: doing it based on truth and principle, think about stepping
40:23
Speaker 5: up and run into office. Because until good, honest, ethical
40:26
Speaker 5: people step up and start taking a stance, people that want,
40:30
Speaker 5: you know, the things that you were talking about are
40:31
Speaker 5: basic transparency and account fiscal accountability. Every nickel of taxpayer dime,
40:38
Speaker 5: we should know exactly where it's going, and it needs
40:40
Speaker 5: to go for appropriate stuff, uh, not not to line
40:45
Speaker 5: some wealthy individual's pocket. So this is if you feel
40:48
Speaker 5: it in your heart, you know, maybe step up, get involved,
40:52
Speaker 5: even if it's just going to your meetings and holding
40:54
Speaker 5: your elected officials accountable. That's that's how I want to
40:58
Speaker 5: end this. Please, please do a home, Polly. Even if
41:00
Speaker 5: I reach one set of ears that that you know
41:03
Speaker 5: that I can get to come out of their box
41:05
Speaker 5: and step up, that would be that would be wonderful.
41:07
Speaker 6: Well, Jerry, first of all, I agree, I hear the passion,
41:11
Speaker 6: and you're obviously represented no pun intended.
41:16
Speaker 4: Thank you doing it.
41:17
Speaker 6: And I think Todd's like his legs shaken over here,
41:20
Speaker 6: so I think he's actually ready to gear up and
41:22
Speaker 6: go down and on local councils by the end of January. Listen,
41:28
Speaker 6: thank you so much. At the end of the day,
41:30
Speaker 6: you made one one word in your closing remarks that
41:34
Speaker 6: really struck me, is that dysfunctional? And you know, I
41:38
Speaker 6: think the fact is that most of us probably believe
41:42
Speaker 6: whether it's healthcare delivery, whether it's state government, federal government,
41:50
Speaker 6: whatever it might be, that we we still seem to
41:54
Speaker 6: be in this this this season or this phase of dysfunction,
41:59
Speaker 6: and if we could degree with something like that that hey,
42:02
Speaker 6: there is dysfunction. Okay, it's not bad. It's not like
42:04
Speaker 6: the you know, the worst thing in the world. It is,
42:07
Speaker 6: it's true. But then to your point, Okay, if we
42:10
Speaker 6: all accept that there's dysfunction, that's let's all put a
42:12
Speaker 6: little effort into to start, uh, removing that dysfunction, and
42:16
Speaker 6: will be pretty damn impressed, excuse my language, you know
42:19
Speaker 6: in two years, three years, four years, that we can
42:22
Speaker 6: overcome dysfunction, because I do believe that, you know, the
42:25
Speaker 6: US represents a lot of really good things, and you know,
42:29
Speaker 6: and you know, we still feel that we're the greatest
42:31
Speaker 6: country in the world, but there's probably argument to suggests
42:33
Speaker 6: that we're not the greatest country in certain things. And
42:36
Speaker 6: and maybe, uh, you know, just fixing dysfunction something is
42:39
Speaker 6: simple and common and can make a huge difference. So
42:44
Speaker 6: thank you for all that you do for your for
42:48
Speaker 6: your community and your constituents. Thank you for stepping up
42:51
Speaker 6: and walking the walk or walking the talk. Yeah, I
42:55
Speaker 6: guess that's a better way of saying it and we
42:57
Speaker 6: trually all the best and we look forward to talking
42:59
Speaker 6: to you again.
42:59
Speaker 4: Really so thank you so very much anytime.
43:03
Speaker 2: Thank you you for listening to the Executive Dose with
43:05
Speaker 2: hosts Steven Beckman and we had a special episode with
43:10
Speaker 2: state Representative Charity Krupa. Thank you so much. We look
43:15
Speaker 2: forward to hearing from other state representatives. A shout out
43:19
Speaker 2: to you if you're listening, if you want to get
43:21
Speaker 2: involved and you want to bring on your state representative
43:24
Speaker 2: to the Executive Dose, please do so. Please reach out
43:27
Speaker 2: to The Pharmacy Podcast and we will talk to you
43:30
Speaker 2: next time on the Executive Dose.
43:32
Speaker 3: Thank care.