Making Connections News

Can artists, dancers, actors, musicians and creative thinkers of all varieties contribute to the economic rebuilding of our Appalachian communities? WMMT’s Kelli Haywood looked for answers to that question as she visited the 15th annual Cowan Creek Mountain Music School at the Cowan Community Center. The Center is one partner in a creative placemaking effort led by Appalshop called the Letcher County Culture Hub. Organizations and individuals throughout the county are bringing together arts, culture, and business enterprise to establish a more diversified economy and communities that are healthy, happy, and whole.

Over 30 people spoke out about KY Governor Matt Bevin’s proposed changes to the state’s Medicaid system that through its expansion has seen almost 500,000 low income Kentuckians find health care coverage. WMMT covered the July 7 Public Hearing in Hazard on the Section 11-15 Medicaid waiver that the Bevin Administration is seeking. This Mountain Talk features comments from health care providers, mental health advocates, policy analysts, and regular works who work with those on Medicaid or are themselves beneficiaries of the program. Kentucky Voices for Health and the Kentucky Center for Budget Policy and Kentucky Voices for Health are also good sources of information.

WMMT visits the Letcher County Farmers’ Market in Whitesburg, KY where an innovative program called Farmacy is improving health and getting nationwide attention. Formed through an unusual partnership between medical providers – area medical clinics, Medicaid insurance companies, doctors and nurses – and local farmers, the Farmers’ Market, and nonprofits such as Community Farm Alliance, the Farmacy program is offering locally grown fruits and vegetables as alternatives to medical prescriptions. Now in its second year, the Farmacy has already made an impact on the health of the community as well as begun to expand economic opportunity for area farmers.

The 2016 Appalachian Media Institute interns speak with WMMT about their experiences in this year’s Summer Documentary Institute and thoughts about the region and their futures within it. Since 1988, Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) has provided opportunities for young people from central Appalachia to explore their communities and develop their creative skills through the arts and media. This is a pivotal time for central Appalachia as we work for a transition to a more diversified regional economy, and this year AMI focused on Envisioning Our Future. Six youth from eastern Kentucky participated in this 8-week program providing training in documentary storytelling and a chance to explore, produce and share youth-led visions for the region’s future.

Teresa Tice works for a physican in private practice who does not offer health insurance. At age 63, Ms. Tice would have no insurance if not for Kentucky's Medicaid expansion. She stated that she raised two sons as a divorced mother, has worked all her life, and "I certainly would hope that may state would not decide that I am too lazy, too poor, and too inconsequential to have health care." Send your comments on the Medicaid waiver by Friday 7/22 to kyhealth@ky.gov

In her testimony about the Medicaid waiver, Elizabeth Hensley from Clay County said the Bevin Administration was out of touch with the realities of being poor and living near the poverty level. "Poor people don't need more red tape or hoops to jump through, but this is a bureaucratic nightmare that seeks to force out or block as many people as possible." Send your comments on the Medicaid waiver by Friday 7/22 to kyhealth@ky.gov

Heather Wehrheim, representing the American Lung Association, was critical of Gov. Bevin's Medicaid proposal for increasing barriers to health care and stated that the ALA was especially alarmed with plans to limit access to tobacco cessation treatments in a state with the highest smoking and lung cancer rates. Send your comments on the Medicaid waiver by Friday 7/22 to kyhealth@ky.gov

Dr. Schuster is executive director of the Advocacy Action Network which advocates for Kentuckians with disabilities, particularly regarding behavioral disabilities and access to health care. She called on the Bevin Administration to treat the 500,000 additional Kentuckians now receiving Medicaid as valuable members of our state, even though they may be poor. Send your comments on the Medicaid waiver by Friday 7/22 to kyhealth@ky.gov

Jason Bailey, Director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, at the July 6 Hazard, KY Public Hearing stated that Governor Bevin's proposed changes to Kentucky's Medicaid expansion would move Kentucky backwards instead of building on the health and economic gains the state has experienced. For more on KCEP's analysis of the plan -http://kypolicy.org/summary-governors-proposed-medicaid-changes/ Send your comments on the Medicaid waiver by Friday 7/22 to kyhealth@ky.gov