Kansas Rep. Jenkins Laughs at Uninsured Single Mother with Son

Kansas Congressswoman Lynn Jenkins is at it again! It’s no secret that Rep. Jenkins is quickly becoming the queen of political fumbles. First she won’t share her “secret plan” to reform health care, then she wants a “great white hope” to save the GOP, and now she is laughing at uninsured Kansans and their kids.

Like the woman in the video that Rep. Jenkins laughs at when she suggests the idea of a Public Option – may I remind you Jenkins still has not offered any alternative ways to reform health care – I am in the age bracket of youth coming of age and being dropped off their parents coverage.

I am a college student who only has health care because of my mom’s job, not because of my glorious job as a Pharmacy Technician at Wal-Mart that I sell my soul to for $8.70 an hour in order to help pay the bills and go out every now and again.

I am going more and more into debt every semester because of student loans all so that when I graduate I can get a job and slowly dig myself out, and maybe if I’m lucky I can get a job with really good health insurance, and life will be swell.

But until I land that stellar job that will solve all my problems I will most likely be dropped off my mom’s plan sometime during my junior or senior year and left to figure out where to go from there, let’s hope I don’t get sick!

I don’t want free health care, but I sure as hell don’t want to work 40 hours a week at Wal-Mart with my newly earned college degree in order to get some health insurance. I want an affordable Public Option that I can buy into and be covered in the very likely possibility of me getting sick.

Health insurance reform effects youth the most. Over one third of our generation is without it. We are the one’s who are making the transition from our parent’s plans to no plan at all or a barely affordable one. We have heard our whole lives that we are the future, we are what is to come and what shall be, it saddens me to see that elected officials like Rep. Jenkins laugh at us and ignore our voices when it comes to health care. It is important to protect the people who fuel this Country.

Rep. Jenkins today I present you with a challenge. The next time you find yourself around children in school, the youth working in your local market, the kids playing on the playground down the street, the youth that worked so hard on your campaign, the kids you see in church, any of them, I want you to look them in the eye and tell them why you don’t think they should have the option to have health care, why you feel that it is funny to think that providing a beneficial service is something you should vote for.

Transcript of what was said:

Elizabeth Smith: I’m a 27 year-old single mother. I work full-time. I do not have health insurance. My employer does not provide health insurance to me and I cannot afford it privately. Why shouldn’t my government guarantee all of its citizens health care?Jenkins: Thank you. I’m sorry, maybe you missed my opening remarks, but absolutely. That’s why we have Medicaid in the current system and that’s why under the alternative proposal we have an option for low-to-modest-income people to be able to afford health care and then we’ve got the SCHIP program for children. I think we’ve got all of the bases covered.
Audience member: She’s not covered under SCHIP!
Lynn Jenkins: OK, if you’re not then you’re the perfect example for why we need reform and why we need it now but we have to do it right and if we can do an alternative proposal, as I’m suggesting, give you the money to go buy it in a reformed marketplace where it is affordable, that’s my preference rather than to saddle the nation with yet another government program when they can’t afford the government run programs we have.
Elizabeth Smith: I want an option that I can pay for. I work. I pay my bills. I’m not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can’t I get an affordable option. Why are you against that?
Lynn Jenkins: A government run program (laugh) is going to subsidize not only yours (laugh) but everybody in this room. So I’m not sure what we’re talking about here.
Lynn Jenkins: I think it comes down to the whole discussion of…
(The crowd erupts. At this point, it’s safe to say even they aren’t buying Jenkins position…)
Lynn Jenkins: OK folks. Let’s be respectful. UH-OH (talking over crowd). We’re gonna make time for everybody. We’re gonna all listen to each other respectfully, even if we disagree. I think we can agree we need reforms, again it’s just how we gonna do it. I believe people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with an advanceable tax credit to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance.