Dr. Kessler offered some opinions on Montana’s current Senatorial race between incumbent Tester and Republican Sheehy. While my wife and I are grateful for the excellent and compassionate care we receive in Sidney, we live in Watford City, so Montana’s Senator will represent us only indirectly. None the less, I’d like to make a couple observations on Dr. Kessler’s remarks.
I’ve practiced medicine for over 30 years myself, in communities more rural than Sidney, so I’m familiar and concerned about the trends over time. While Tester’s prediction that the Sidney hospital would close under Sheehy’s watch is certainly over-confident, there have been 138 rural hospital closures in the US from 2010-22. Although none appear to be in Montana during that period, I don’t think anyone should be complacent about the same financial pressures that Montana hospitals face. While Sheehy criticizes “Obamacare” for steadily increasing costs, and recently stated that he will “… always protect Montanans with pre-existing conditions”, it was Obamacare that provided the first protection for people with “pre-existing conditions” and the Biden administration that finally allowed the Feds to negotiate for lower drug prices. Both these improvements in healthcare policy were staunchly opposed by Republicans and Mr. Trump recently admitted that after 9 years of criticizing and trying to repeal Obamacare, he merely has “concepts” of how to improve it.
Lastly, inflation is a very important factor in our day-to-day lives, but Republicans’ focus on this deserves some context. Dr. Kessler is correct to note that the “core inflation rate” does not include food and fuel, but it has not for decades (not some recent distortion). The Consumer Price Index, does include food and fuel and peaked in the US in 2022 at 8%, but was 4% in 2023. Compared to European countries during the same period, England and Germany’s CPI peaked at 9%, Spain at 11% and Italy at 12%. Dr. Kessler blames Biden policies for this inflation, but which in particular, and how did Biden policy cause an even higher rate of inflation in Europe? Perhaps, too much “fiscal stimulation” from the COVID regulations providing rent relief and probably contributing to a drop-in child poverty rate from 16.1% in 2020, to 15% in 2022, which is climbing again since these measures have expired?
Sincerely
Lyle Best, MD
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