On Sunday the 4th Congressional District Democratic Committee held a family gathering and picnic at Truman State Park near Warsaw. Approximately one hundred individuals, many who are party activists in their counties and the state, attended. Early in the afternoon legislative district, state senate district, and 4th Congressional District Democratic Party candidates took turns to speak to those assembled.

James William, the Democratic Party candidate in the 54th Legislative District (approximately Western Johnson County, including the western half of Warrensburg) and a registered nurse, addressed health care.

James Williams (D): …There isn’t one of us here who wants to seek this position and do a bad job. I have spent my whole work career of forty some years as registered nurse and as a nurse practitioner. And my core principle is and has been and will be to make people’s lives better. Whether that is in health, that is in, uh, all the things that we struggle with in life. I have found my self, with people and families, helping ort out the issues that face us and all our families. I believe that there is much we can do in Missouri to make people’s lives better…

James Williams (D): …We have fifteen hospitals in Missouri that have already closed. And you can’t run a deficit, you can’t run a business in the red continually and expect a good outcome. I know for my self and my wife who live in Johnson County, and for you in the counties in which you live, our rural hospitals are really suffering from the fact that we’ve not expanded Medicaid in this state. [applause] Those are hundreds of millions of dollars that could be coming in to this state to keep our rural hospitals open. The medical centers in the, our three major medical center areas, they can get by without this. But our rural hospitals can’t. And if you don’t think our rural hospitals are not providing emergency care to people who are not insured or do not have a mechanism by which to pay those bills you would be wrong. Because we are providing that care, so the hospitals are not being compensated for it. And this injustice for access to health care has to end. That is something I can vote for in House seat fifty-four. And that everyone running for a position in this Missouri legislature can change that. If all we ever did was to change that one thing it would improve the lives of everyone who lives in the State of Missouri.

I won’t, uh, go on any farther, but I appreciate your listening. I appreciate your listening to who will follow me and the ones that were before me because we need your help. Almost every one of you will be, go out and vote. But what you can do is you can talk to your neighbor, you can talk to that cousin who never votes and you can talk to them and get them to the polls. And tell them how important it is.

You’ve heard a lot of ideas of what can change in Missouri to make everybody’s lives better. But it’ll only happen if the people who we know can hear my story and these other folks’ story through you.

So, I ask you for that support and I ask you to, uh, encourage them that they might find their way to support important issues for working families, nd people who are retired, hoping to have a retirement, and for those who are disabled.

I thank you for your time. [applause]