A doctor?s job is to listen, gather data, assess the situation and collaborate with others to find a solution.
Kansas Sen. Barbara Bollier, a retired anesthesiologist, said she wants to take that same policy to Washington D.C. as a U.S. Senator.
Bollier, a former Republican now running as to be the Democratic Party nominee for Kansas in the U.S. Senate, spoke to Allen County residents Friday morning at Around the Corner.
Bollier is considered the likely Democratis nominee, and she said she expects Kris Kobach to win the nod from the Republican Party. Kobach ran for Kansas governor in 2018 and lost to Democrat Laura Kelly, which gives Bollier hope that she might also be able to convince Kansans to give her a chance.
Bollier was elected as a Republican to the Kansas House of Representatives in 2010 and then to the Kansas Senate in 2016. She switched parties in 2018.
If elected, Bollier would be the first woman physician to serve in the U.S. Senate. But winning the seat will be a challenge, she acknowledged. Kanas hasn?t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.
At Friday?s event, Bollier touted herself as a moderate and criticized former Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, for his budget policies and his position on Medicaid expansion, which she supports.
She first ran for office to help the state with issues surrounding health care.
?As a physician, I knew there needed to be more people at the table who understood medicine,? she said. ?It?s not about being partisan, it?s about doing things to care for people. That?s what you do as a doctor, and I thought that?s what you do as a legislator. However, when I got to Topeka I found out it wasn?t quite so easy.?
She soon found herself at odds with Republican leadership over things like funding for public education, equality and health care issues.
She believes health care remains the most important issue for Kansas voters. Thriving communities depend on access to quality health care, and she hopes Kansas will finally approve Medicaid expansion. A bi-partisan plan was unveiled recently between Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican leadership.
But it will take more than that to improve the health care system, she said. She supports changing the rules to allow for pricing negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, which is done in other countries like Canada that have lower prices for prescription medications.
She said she doesn?t support ?Medicare-for-All? policies proposed by some Democratic presidential candidates. The country isn?t ready for such a drastic change in health care policy, she said.
?In my personal opinion, we do need to have a public buy-in option and maintain the Affordable Care Act. Improve what?s not working, but make sure everyone can get access to quality health care,? she said.
Kansas Sen. Barbara Bollier, running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, visits Friday with John Skilling and Shirley Ashford during a campaign stop in Iola. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
