Katie Klabusich

Host

Healthcare in the Margins

May 16, 2014·93 visitors

Katie Vitale

Cohost

Stage· 286 messages

May 16, 2014

Access to health care saves lives. In this country, that means access to health insurance saves lives. A new study out of post-state-exchange Mass supports this theory. nSo what about those in states without an exchange? Worse yet, in states refusing to expand Medicaid?nKatie Vitale, Giving Manager at People’s Community Clinic in TX, sees the effects a lack of access every day. She's joining me to talk about providing care for those on the margins & why the ACA can't be the end of the fight.

Katie Klabusich · 12:00 AM

Hi, everyone! Thanks for coming to “Healthcare in the Margins” (new ProTip: there’s a mobile app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tawkers/id791417999?mt=8 )

Katie Klabusich · 12:00 AM

Real quick, if you’re new to Tawkers, Katie and I will be chatting on the left. And if you’re signed in (it only takes two minutes to set up a profile!), you can add comments/questions on the right. Interrupt any time with questions!

Katie Klabusich · 12:00 AM

Also, definitely use the “arrow” icons to share comments on social media & ask people you know who will dig the discussion to join in.

Katie Klabusich · 12:01 AM

So, I’ve been a pretty vocal supporter of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) since the law passed. But I’ve always ID-ed it as “insurance reform,” not “healthcare reform.” b/c of that distinction, a lot of people were left unhelped by the ACA.

Katie Klabusich · 12:01 AM

Katie is the Giving Manager and Webmaster for The People’s Community Clinic in Texas where she sees every day the gaps in our system. As we push toward full reform and real universal access, experiences like hers need to be told and amplified.

Katie Klabusich · 12:01 AM

I’m so excited you were willing to donate an hour of your time tonight — thanks so much for joining me, Katie!

Katie Vitale · 12:01 AM

thanks for inviting me, Katie!

Katie Klabusich · 12:02 AM

As an opening, tell folks what it is you do at People’s Community Clinic.

Katie Vitale · 12:02 AM

So you all can guess at webmaster,

Katie Vitale · 12:02 AM

but the giving manager part of the job occupies more of my time

Katie Klabusich · 12:02 AM

★ Spotlighted from Jane KY Kini Malia

“Hello from Jane. Thank you for inviting me, Katies.”

Katie Vitale · 12:03 AM

i work on a small development (fundraising) team to generate over half of the budget at people's community clinic www.austinpcc.org

Katie Vitale · 12:03 AM

we have over 10,000 uninsured and medically underserved patients currently

Katie Klabusich · 12:03 AM

I was really impressed by the philosophy there: ""...providing high quality healthcare with respect and dignity."

Katie Vitale · 12:04 AM

about 60% of these patients qualify for some sort of subsidy for healthcare

Katie Vitale · 12:04 AM

40% are not eligible for any care assistance and pay on a sliding scale for their primary care

Katie Klabusich · 12:04 AM

How do people who can't afford full price out of pocket not qualify for subsidies?

Katie Vitale · 12:04 AM

PCC has been delivering care for over 44 years to low-income central Texans

Katie Klabusich · 12:04 AM

That's pretty amazing!

Katie Vitale · 12:05 AM

if you're on the sliding scale, you may pay $25 for your visit

Katie Vitale · 12:05 AM

that visit may include pharmacy and lab visits

Katie Klabusich · 12:05 AM

Yeah, the clinic really has a full slate of medical care available.

Katie Vitale · 12:06 AM

we have a small class D pharmacy with the most cost-effective drugs that our patients are prescribed most

Katie Vitale · 12:06 AM

to keep costs down

Katie Vitale · 12:06 AM

there's also a small lab where we run the tests that are cheaper to do in house

Katie Klabusich · 12:06 AM

This is an obvious question in a way as it's the title of the tawk, but how is it that a person who needs help paying for care NOT qualify for assistance through a government subsidy?

Katie Vitale · 12:07 AM

it's easiest for patients to follow orders when they don't have to run all over town

Katie Klabusich · 12:07 AM

**does not qualify**

Katie Vitale · 12:07 AM

so in Texas state leadership funds federal programs at the lowest level possible

Katie Klabusich · 12:07 AM

<sigh>

Katie Vitale · 12:08 AM

for example, CHIP (children's health insurance program) federal subsidies would match our investment, but we choose not to fund at the maximum match

Katie Klabusich · 12:08 AM

(This is a story, btw, in the majority of states with GOP governors who turned down the Medicaid expansion part of the ACA.)

Katie Klabusich · 12:08 AM

That has to infuriate people! Do they realize it or have people become complacent with the quality and access of care?

Katie Vitale · 12:08 AM

or another example, family planning!

Katie Vitale · 12:09 AM

i think they honestly believe it's the highest quality care in the world

Katie Klabusich · 12:09 AM

Ah! I didn't mean the healthcare received at the clinic

Katie Klabusich · 12:09 AM

I mean the quality of legislators - lol

Katie Vitale · 12:09 AM

but a lot of Texans measure care differently than me

Katie Vitale · 12:09 AM

oh, no, not pcc, no worries there

Katie Klabusich · 12:10 AM

The idea that people elected to look out for you turn down, basically free money.

Katie Vitale · 12:10 AM

i mean social conservatives must honestly be believing that we have the best quality

Katie Vitale · 12:10 AM

yes! free money

Katie Vitale · 12:10 AM

Texas leaves millions of dollars on the table every biennium

Katie Vitale · 12:10 AM

our legislature meets for only 140 days every 2 years

Katie Klabusich · 12:11 AM

Yeah, that is sort of mind blowing.

Katie Vitale · 12:11 AM

except when they need to have a special session to restrict women's rights

Katie Klabusich · 12:11 AM

Especially for a state that size; that there wouldn't be enough work for a full time legislature.

Katie Klabusich · 12:11 AM

<side eye> to the special sessionSSSS

Katie Vitale · 12:11 AM

so each time they write the budget, they choose not to fully fund programs like family planning

Katie Klabusich · 12:11 AM

Unreal. And EXPENSIVE.

Katie Vitale · 12:12 AM

family planning investment on the state level is matched $9 for every $1 we spend

Katie Klabusich · 12:12 AM

WOW

Katie Vitale · 12:12 AM

we could multiply our $dollars by 9

Katie Vitale · 12:12 AM

we could make it rain

Katie Vitale · 12:13 AM

but instead of spending ~$200 on an annual exam, Texan leadership would rather spend $16,400+ of taxpayer $

Katie Vitale · 12:13 AM

and this is how it works with most state level healthcare decisions

Katie Klabusich · 12:13 AM

That's unbelievable.

Katie Klabusich · 12:13 AM

Yeah, thenumber of states who chose not to expand Medicaid was astounding.

Katie Vitale · 12:13 AM

and I reckon that a lot of the other states that refuse to expand Medicaid operate similarly

Katie Klabusich · 12:14 AM

Some are walking that back, obviously -- my most surprising o.O moment was Jan Brewer in AZ caving to positive pressure from the constituency.

Katie Vitale · 12:14 AM

So we have over 1 million uninsured Texans still

Katie Vitale · 12:14 AM

yes, Jan!

Katie Vitale · 12:14 AM

Surprised me

Katie Klabusich · 12:14 AM

That's such a huge number -- and People's Clinic is only able to serve 10,000 of them. I'd guess much of the reason is simple geography.

Katie Vitale · 12:14 AM

Yes, and physical limitations.

Katie Klabusich · 12:15 AM

You can only serve the people who can get to you -- an issue you and I walk about in repro rights all the time.

Katie Klabusich · 12:15 AM

**talk

Katie Vitale · 12:15 AM

exactly

Katie Vitale · 12:15 AM

and we had been operating at capacity for years

Katie Vitale · 12:15 AM

recently we've added a number of exam rooms and remodeled to really maximize space

Katie Vitale · 12:15 AM

and we've bought a new building!

Katie Vitale · 12:16 AM

we hope to double our patient population within a few years

Katie Klabusich · 12:16 AM

Hooray, space!

Katie Klabusich · 12:16 AM

Clarice, totally.

Katie Vitale · 12:16 AM

space is great. we never turned away pregnant women though

Katie Klabusich · 12:16 AM

And we're seeing it across the country.

Katie Klabusich · 12:16 AM

That's amazing, Katie!

Katie Vitale · 12:17 AM

pregnant women and children can always be seen

Katie Vitale · 12:18 AM

so our patients' care, whether subsidized by a program or their sliding scale payment, has to be covered with fundraising

Katie Vitale · 12:18 AM

★ Spotlighted from Clarice Piper

“with all the trouble our cities, counties, states, and country is in, it appalls me that legislators work so few days, and take so much vacation”

Katie Vitale · 12:18 AM

so that's where me and my coworkers come in

Katie Klabusich · 12:18 AM

It just frustrates me to no end that we need charity to provide basic healthcare.

Katie Vitale · 12:18 AM

it is frustrating

Katie Klabusich · 12:18 AM

And what do people in places like the RGV and western Texas do without a clinic like yours?

Katie Vitale · 12:19 AM

it's frustrating that they don't get care they need

Katie Vitale · 12:19 AM

i liked the piece you shared on facebook earlier

Katie Vitale · 12:19 AM

showing that people put off diagnostic care

Katie Vitale · 12:19 AM

put off routine care

Katie Klabusich · 12:19 AM

Yes! I was just going to bring that up. Well done, Queen Segue!

Katie Klabusich · 12:19 AM

Here's the piece: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/all-the-reasons-women-dont-go-to-the-doctor-other-than-money/370952/

Katie Klabusich · 12:20 AM

Money isn't the only reason people -- women especially -- put off healthcare.

Katie Vitale · 12:20 AM

in a state like Texas where conservative legislators praise babies to no end we had over 137,000 babies born in 2010 without prenatal care

Katie Vitale · 12:20 AM

it demonstrates an active marginalization of low-income and minority women

Katie Vitale · 12:21 AM

but there are plenty of men in that 1 million+ uninsured Texas

Katie Vitale · 12:21 AM

Texans

Katie Vitale · 12:22 AM

no prenatal care leads to more low birth weight

Katie Vitale · 12:22 AM

and higher infant mortality

Katie Vitale · 12:22 AM

but it seems that the same men that will fight you to keep the pregnancy don't care if you die delivering

Katie Klabusich · 12:22 AM

Yeah, Clarice, they pretty much care up until the moment they can get ya born.

Katie Klabusich · 12:22 AM

Yeah, our maternal mortality rate just dropped again internationally.

Katie Klabusich · 12:23 AM

It really feels uncomfortable to even call it "health care" a lot of the time.

Katie Vitale · 12:23 AM

so there are hundreds of thousands of Texans who are "too rich" for Medicaid as it is set up

Katie Vitale · 12:23 AM

and "too poor" for #ACA exchanges

Katie Klabusich · 12:23 AM

That's the thing I definitely wanted to get to.

Katie Vitale · 12:23 AM

these are the folks that Medicaid expansion would have helped

Katie Klabusich · 12:24 AM

People aren't realizing that the ACA is insurance reform and the exchanges + Medicaid expansion was SUPPOSED to fill in the gaps.

Katie Vitale · 12:24 AM

i'm surprised that so many states aren't expanding Medicaid

Katie Klabusich · 12:24 AM

But if you governor is Rick Perry, you didn't see the medicaid expansion.

Katie Klabusich · 12:24 AM

★ Spotlighted from Clarice Piper

“no pre-natal care is a sad start for children”

Katie Vitale · 12:24 AM

It's particularly rough here

Katie Klabusich · 12:24 AM

They're going to have to walk it back like AZ has done. Eventually, budget balancing at a state level will force you into it. Hopefully.

Katie Vitale · 12:25 AM

we do have a constitutional obligation in Texas to balance the budget

Katie Vitale · 12:25 AM

that was one of the funny things I recall from Bush's campaigns

Katie Klabusich · 12:25 AM

A lot of states do -- but there's wiggle room with last year/next year/etc. It's how they cut family planning and expand charters at the same time.

Katie Vitale · 12:25 AM

"I balanced the budget every year."

Katie Klabusich · 12:25 AM

heh...yeah "I balanced a budget!" Right. Of course you did. They made you.

Katie Vitale · 12:26 AM

Well, yeah, you didn't write it and it's constitutional illegal to unbalance it.

Katie Vitale · 12:26 AM

either way, Texas doesn't have income tax

Katie Vitale · 12:26 AM

we impose a relatively high sales tax

Katie Klabusich · 12:26 AM

Which is really regressive.

Katie Vitale · 12:27 AM

right

Katie Klabusich · 12:27 AM

So who are the people that fall into the gap b/t Medicaid and insurance access? A lot of folks have a preconceived notion of what those people look like, do for a living, where they come from.

Katie Vitale · 12:27 AM

these folks are caregivers, or work a job for a small company, or are hospitality service folks

Katie Vitale · 12:28 AM

but these people are working, are underemployed, are underpaid

Katie Klabusich · 12:28 AM

Many are even above the poverty level, but healthcare is still expensive and insurance is out of reach.

Katie Vitale · 12:28 AM

are sometimes paid under the table and can't document their earnings

Katie Vitale · 12:28 AM

yes!

Katie Klabusich · 12:28 AM

Yeah, punishment for service industry workers.

Katie Vitale · 12:28 AM

especially waiters

Katie Vitale · 12:29 AM

i mean, what does $2/hour get you?

Katie Vitale · 12:29 AM

there is a different definition of stability for this population

Katie Klabusich · 12:29 AM

Jack shit.

Katie Klabusich · 12:29 AM

That's what $2 gets you.

Katie Vitale · 12:29 AM

i know because it was me for years

Katie Klabusich · 12:30 AM

I used to explain to people who didn't know how to tip: "Do you know how many people that server has to tip out from what you gave them?"

Katie Klabusich · 12:30 AM

Katie Vitale · 12:30 AM

right

Katie Klabusich · 12:30 AM

If their bosses aren't stealing it b/c they're already working under the table.

Katie Vitale · 12:30 AM

and women are more likely to work these jobs

Katie Klabusich · 12:30 AM

Yes indeed! And more likely to be the breadwinners. So...

Katie Klabusich · 12:31 AM

Getting to the doctor also means finding childcare.

Katie Vitale · 12:31 AM

and these jobs, not just service industry, but all the folks who are finding themselves in this gap, are less likely to care about your health

Katie Klabusich · 12:31 AM

yeah -- sidebar....

Katie Vitale · 12:31 AM

exactly

Katie Klabusich · 12:31 AM

The CDC did a study.

Katie Vitale · 12:31 AM

what did the study show?

Katie Klabusich · 12:31 AM

It turns out an estimated 85% of airborne illnesses IN THE COUNTRY can be traced back food service workers coming to their jobs sick b/c they don't have a choice.

Katie Klabusich · 12:32 AM

So, hey. How about we provide healthcare and some paid sick days so WE ALL benefit?

Katie Vitale · 12:32 AM

[jaw drops]

Katie Klabusich · 12:32 AM

Yeah.

Katie Vitale · 12:32 AM

after i worked food service, i was happy to get my hepatitis B & B immunizations

Katie Vitale · 12:32 AM

A & B

Katie Klabusich · 12:32 AM

Word.

Katie Vitale · 12:33 AM

a lot of outbreaks are traced back to sick food service worker

Katie Vitale · 12:33 AM

or an olive garden

Katie Vitale · 12:33 AM

sorry, bad olive garden joke

Katie Klabusich · 12:33 AM

Heh. No, that was a thing.

Katie Vitale · 12:34 AM

i would certainly like to put these conservative legislators on the spot

Katie Klabusich · 12:34 AM

Olive Garden is owned by one of the corps that fires people for being sick. So, it's an apt joke.

Katie Klabusich · 12:34 AM

Me too. If they didn't have their insurance paid for by us....

Katie Vitale · 12:34 AM

they claim that they care about babies

Katie Vitale · 12:34 AM

they claim they care about children

Katie Klabusich · 12:34 AM

BABIEZ

Katie Klabusich · 12:35 AM

Nah. Not even.

Katie Vitale · 12:35 AM

they claim they care about keeping America #1

Katie Vitale · 12:35 AM

but the only #1s we get are for number of uninsured

Katie Vitale · 12:35 AM

in the industrialized world

Katie Vitale · 12:35 AM

#1 for teen births in industrialized world

Katie Klabusich · 12:35 AM

Listen. If anyone outside our borders was causing the pandemic of illness that happens b/c we can't as a society go to the doctor, there'd be perpetual war.

Katie Klabusich · 12:35 AM

(welp)

Katie Vitale · 12:36 AM

#1 for least legal protection for new parents

Katie Vitale · 12:36 AM

i believe it

Katie Klabusich · 12:36 AM

THere's a stat I didn't know.

Katie Klabusich · 12:36 AM

Whomp.

Katie Vitale · 12:36 AM

when I say legal protection for the parents

Katie Vitale · 12:37 AM

i'm referring to the lack of paid maternity and paternity leave

Katie Vitale · 12:37 AM

the shortest duration of allowed absence from your job

Katie Klabusich · 12:37 AM

Right. Gotcha.

Katie Klabusich · 12:38 AM

Paid Family Leave, folks! Is that a good place for us to be advocating? It would certainly do wonders for starting out healthy in the world.

Katie Vitale · 12:38 AM

so there are a lot of people in this gap, who are going without primary care, regular care, specialty care

Katie Vitale · 12:38 AM

for lots of Texas women, especially in the RGV, an annual exam may be their only interaction with a doctor that year

Katie Klabusich · 12:39 AM

Truth, Clarice

Katie Vitale · 12:39 AM

if as a society we could place resources on parents, we would appreciate parenthood and parenting more

Katie Klabusich · 12:39 AM

I definitely went without primary care for almost a decade.

Katie Klabusich · 12:39 AM

b/c of annual abnormal paps, I had to "save" my three doc appts for the OBGYN. So, now that I have insurance (NY has an exchange),

Katie Vitale · 12:40 AM

if we could invest more in our neighbors, we would improve our GDP, reduce illness, mental illness, increase productivity

Katie Vitale · 12:40 AM

i went without primary care for years

Katie Klabusich · 12:40 AM

I'm spending the ENTIRE year at the doc, with specialist, coordinating care for chronic shit a 34-eyar-old should be dealing with.

Katie Vitale · 12:40 AM

during which time i developed gallstones

Katie Vitale · 12:40 AM

this is when i was in that gap, or the population that would be the gap after #ACA

Katie Klabusich · 12:40 AM

★ Spotlighted from Clarice Piper

“And then, after this lack of vacation and leave, we get chronically sick, and can't afford quality life”

Katie Vitale · 12:41 AM

told I was an "able bodied adult" my cobbled part-time jobs and school work made me "too rich"

Katie Klabusich · 12:42 AM

It's so awful. Things people - ahem, legislators - take for granted. Going to the doctor for "little things" that we end up treating at the emergency level b/c we couldn't just stop at the doc to check it out.

Katie Vitale · 12:42 AM

Clarice, you are so right with the antivaxers

Katie Klabusich · 12:42 AM

HA. Yeah. Rich.

Katie Vitale · 12:42 AM

antivaxers take advantage of everyone else

Katie Vitale · 12:42 AM

that's a whole 'nuther tawk

Katie Klabusich · 12:43 AM

Truth.

Katie Klabusich · 12:43 AM

★ Spotlighted from Clarice Piper

“Katie, and with parents not vaccinating their kids, that leaves us ripe for an induced pandemic (the lack of reasoning of it is another conversation for another time)”

Katie Vitale · 12:43 AM

so without healthcare I, like others in this gap, put off diagnostic care and went to an emergency room every few months when I'd get an attack so bad I could not work

Katie Klabusich · 12:44 AM

My brother had a kidney transplant 15 years ago -- he's one of those people who need herd immunity for annual illness and such. I get all angry about the no vax people.

Katie Klabusich · 12:44 AM

Yeah, you gamble, right?

Katie Klabusich · 12:44 AM

"Can I work through this?"

Katie Vitale · 12:44 AM

that's the lack of care we have for people around us

Katie Vitale · 12:44 AM

we don't care that we'll expose them to disease

Katie Vitale · 12:44 AM

we don't care that they will miss work and go bankrupt

Katie Vitale · 12:45 AM

we don't care that after they need public assistance we pay for it

Katie Vitale · 12:45 AM

we as a state

Katie Vitale · 12:45 AM

not me or you

Katie Klabusich · 12:45 AM

You can say we as a country as well.

Katie Klabusich · 12:45 AM

It's certainly true in a broad sense.

Katie Vitale · 12:45 AM

or any of you with the good sense to be reading about healthcare delivery

Katie Klabusich · 12:45 AM

Before I forget! People should check out Katie's radio show -- which she was kind enough to have me on not long ago. https://www.facebook.com/issuesforyourtissues

Katie Vitale · 12:46 AM

thanks Katie

Katie Klabusich · 12:46 AM

"Issues For Your Tissues" is out of Austin which rocks and you can listen online!

Katie Vitale · 12:46 AM

it's a podcast now too

Katie Klabusich · 12:46 AM

Huzzah! I shall run and subscribe shortly!

Katie Vitale · 12:47 AM

yes, wouldn't the Koch brothers like it even more if we had highly skilled, healthy workers everywhere

Katie Vitale · 12:47 AM

Katie Klabusich · 12:47 AM

Nah, too rich to care apparently.

Katie Vitale · 12:47 AM

so we put off care and go to the emergency room when it gets too scary to handle ourselves

Katie Klabusich · 12:47 AM

Also, we're twice as productive for half the pay as our parents. So, there's that.

Katie Vitale · 12:47 AM

or with herbal remedies from the internet

Katie Klabusich · 12:48 AM

Yeah, the idea that we have to be TERRIFIED about dying or losing a limb to go to the doctor is ridiculous.

Katie Vitale · 12:48 AM

that only work for the first couple years of living with gallstones

Katie Klabusich · 12:48 AM

★ Spotlighted from Clarice Piper

“it makes me sad to think how much we as a nation could accomplish if all of our citizens could be health and thus productive to their fullest”

Katie Vitale · 12:48 AM

i would go every few months

Katie Klabusich · 12:48 AM

Sick? --> doctor Done and done. Like, ya know, industrialized first world countries.

Katie Vitale · 12:48 AM

yes!

Katie Vitale · 12:48 AM

now we are made to question our want of medical attention

Katie Klabusich · 12:48 AM

I presume you have excellent access to care now. ;)

Katie Vitale · 12:48 AM

am i good enough to warrant not going to work?

Katie Vitale · 12:49 AM

since working for the clinic, i have great care

Katie Klabusich · 12:49 AM

Had a feeling. ;)

Katie Vitale · 12:49 AM

i did end up having emergency surgery for my gallstones after a few years of delaying the inevitable with natural methods

Katie Klabusich · 12:50 AM

I used to make them send me home from service gigs. I worked a three day St. Pat's weekend of 16 hour shifts with a 102 fever one year. Yeah, great idea.

Katie Vitale · 12:50 AM

that's rough

Katie Klabusich · 12:50 AM

Ugh. That's so infuriating.

Katie Vitale · 12:50 AM

i still owe the hospital thousands of dollars for my surgery

Katie Vitale · 12:50 AM

what could have been a 1 day outpatient laproscopic procedure

Katie Klabusich · 12:50 AM

I'm surprised they haven't come after you. Wow.

Katie Vitale · 12:51 AM

turned into an emergency room visit, admitting, 8 day stay and over $30,000 of expenses

Katie Vitale · 12:51 AM

because i did not have insurance and postponed the surgery

Katie Vitale · 12:51 AM

had to sport a tube in my liver for 8 weeks after that

Katie Klabusich · 12:52 AM

JESUS.

Katie Vitale · 12:52 AM

i'm just one example

Katie Klabusich · 12:52 AM

Yeah, b/c you couldn't take off from a service job.

Katie Vitale · 12:52 AM

there are so many people in the gap putting off what could be a simple procedure

Katie Klabusich · 12:52 AM

b/c that $100 that day is the difference b/t rent and eating and not.

Katie Klabusich · 12:52 AM

It really ends up being so much more expensive for all of us.

Katie Vitale · 12:52 AM

then that simple procedure becomes a complicated as hell procedure

Katie Klabusich · 12:53 AM

NOt to mention the obvious humanitarian atrocity.

Katie Vitale · 12:53 AM

yes, and it is more expensive for everyone

Katie Vitale · 12:53 AM

AND

Katie Vitale · 12:53 AM

even though I applied for retroactive MAP (medical assistance program--county health district's program for low-income folks who are too rich for medicaid)

Katie Vitale · 12:54 AM

and they did accept me and assist

Katie Klabusich · 12:54 AM

I cringe at the "too rich for Medicaid" thing. smh

Katie Vitale · 12:54 AM

that $30,000+ was only reduced to $10,000ish

Katie Vitale · 12:54 AM

so my debt was significantly reduced, but more than $10,000?!?!?!

Katie Klabusich · 12:54 AM

Oh, well, then there ya go. -__-

Katie Vitale · 12:54 AM

for someone who was below the FPL

Katie Vitale · 12:55 AM

federal poverty line

Katie Vitale · 12:55 AM

for a single person about $11,200/year

Katie Vitale · 12:55 AM

it is still not paid off

Katie Vitale · 12:55 AM

i make more now, but it's not just medical debt

Katie Klabusich · 12:55 AM

It never is.

Katie Vitale · 12:56 AM

a lot of the underemployed are actually college graduates

Katie Klabusich · 12:56 AM

That's money that could be going into the economy if you weren't paying off debt.

Katie Klabusich · 12:56 AM

Katie Klabusich · 12:56 AM

Two degrees.

Katie Vitale · 12:56 AM

it was me too

Katie Klabusich · 12:56 AM

Also, a whole other tawk. ;)

Katie Vitale · 12:56 AM

so here you are in Texas, with a degree, with debt,without fulltime job

Katie Klabusich · 12:56 AM

Well, we had a lot of "listeners" tonight -- which fine b/c Katie and I could chat all day. ;) Thanks to Clarice for throwing in her two cents as well!

Katie Vitale · 12:57 AM

wow i can't believe we're almost at 8

Katie Vitale · 12:57 AM

I like readers!

Katie Vitale · 12:57 AM

did i miss any questions?

Katie Klabusich · 12:57 AM

Katie is great on social media and on her radio show, so check her out and I'm SURE if you need directing to resources she will give you a hand b/c that's just the kind of person she is. <3

Katie Klabusich · 12:57 AM

I don't think so! The transcript stays up and people know where to find us; the conversation never really ends around here. ;)

Katie Vitale · 12:58 AM

please come like my page to keep an eye on what i'm up to

Katie Klabusich · 12:58 AM

Any time you have a thing happening you want to chat about, let me know. Happy to have you back!

Katie Vitale · 12:58 AM

it's the best tool to keep up with Katie K too

Katie Klabusich · 12:58 AM

It's true. We're social media people.

Katie Klabusich · 12:58 AM

Thanks so much to everyone who listen and joined in and thanks again to Katie!

Katie Vitale · 12:59 AM

thank you all!

Katie Vitale · 12:59 AM

or thank y'all!

Forum · 8

Forum· 8 comments

93 visitors

Tawkers AdminMay 8, 2014, 5:27 PM

Welcome to the comment section of the Tawk, where audience members can share their thoughts about the main conversation happening on the left. Don't by shy! Entering questions and comments is the only way to get the attention of the two Hosts on stage!

Jane KY Kini MaliaMay 14, 2014, 12:13 AM★ Spotlighted

Hello from Jane. Thank you for inviting me, Katies.

Joshua EllisonMay 14, 2014, 2:37 AM

I'll be around.

Clarice PiperMay 16, 2014, 12:12 AM★ Spotlighted

with all the trouble our cities, counties, states, and country is in, it appalls me that legislators work so few days, and take so much vacation

Clarice PiperMay 16, 2014, 12:21 AM★ Spotlighted

no pre-natal care is a sad start for children

Clarice PiperMay 16, 2014, 12:38 AM★ Spotlighted

And then, after this lack of vacation and leave, we get chronically sick, and can't afford quality life

Clarice PiperMay 16, 2014, 12:40 AM★ Spotlighted

Katie, and with parents not vaccinating their kids, that leaves us ripe for an induced pandemic (the lack of reasoning of it is another conversation for another time)

Clarice PiperMay 16, 2014, 12:46 AM★ Spotlighted

it makes me sad to think how much we as a nation could accomplish if all of our citizens could be health and thus productive to their fullest