Medicaid, mental health hot topics at Pitt County lawmaker's town hall

Medicaid expansion and mental health were the primary constituent concerns at the first town hall held by Pitt County's new state House representative.

Brian Farkas, whose 9th District includes much of Greenville and east-central Pitt County, delivered remarks and fielded questions via Zoom from the State House floor in Raleigh. About 40 people were in attendance at any given time. Of the questions asked, half were related to mental health or Medicaid, including how expansion would affect the state's economy.

The 33-year-old Democrat told constituents he supports expanding the coverage but Republicans who hold power in the legislature fear the costs despite assurances that the federal government and private insurers will foot most of the bill.

"There is a concern on their end that at some point the state would have to take a much more significant percentage of that Medicaid burden onto our budgets," Farkas said. “That was an argument made close to a decade ago, and is still made, but what we have on our side now is data. What we see going on in other states. It is not happening.

“I believe that was something of a false flag. I believe the Medicaid system to be a lot more stable than others are leading on to believe. ”

Farkas said his approach has been largely nonpartisan in his first few months representing the district. He has partnered with Democrat Kandice Smith, the representative for District 8 in north and western Pitt, as well as Republican Chris Humphrey, who serves southern Pitt and Lenoir County, on a number of bills.

Those included House Bills 6 and 9, aimed at providing funding for East Carolina University's Brody School of Medicine, he said. The three are also primary sponsors of House Bill 106, which would allow Pitt County Schools to have additional flexibility in adopting its school calendar. Current state law requires public schools to start no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and to end no later than the Friday closest to June 11.

Two residents in attendance also breached the question of mental health in the time of COVID-19, including recent frightening trends among young people and students. One constituent questioned the efficacy of having 18 social workers divided among 38 schools in the district.

"We know that mental health issues, we've seen numbers skyrocket," he said. “Candid ally, I had a conversation with someone at the schools and they've had a number of more suicides this year which they were really shocked by. We really need to invest in these things. ”

“You put one school counsellor at Rose High School, that's 1,600 kids. We have to make sure we have more in these schools. We also have to make sure people know these resources are available in some cases. Growing up, I went to Rose and my mother made sure I had a good relationship with the school counsellor… It's so integrated, and I believe it is worth spending the money. Some things you have to spend public money on. ”

Farkas also co-signed House Bill 348, which aims to get a nurse in every school in the state. He said that the bill does not apply to social workers or school psychologists but that implementing those practitioners would be something to look into.

Of civil rights, Farkas took a hard stance against politics encroaching on the rights of voters and transgender people. Yoshi Newman, an educational psychologist, questioned a bill filed by Republican legislators that would block trans-women from joining women's high school and college sports teams.

"It's very frustrating to see politicians in Raleigh who can't seem to leave issues of a personal nature alone," Farkas said. “These people can't stop talking about the bathrooms. It moves us so off of where we need to be, talking about these kitchen table issues that actually impact people's lives.

“Unfortunately you have a lot of people pushing partisan stuff, trying to put people in bad moods and bad positions. It's not good and, for people in our transgender community, it devalues ​​them. Everyone deserves to be loved and accepted and not be discriminated against. ”