Dr. Dark: What have you learned in the time you’ve been in the Pennsylvania House?

Dr. Venkat: The most important thing I’ve learned is that there’s a real hunger among government officials for people who have backgrounds in health care and in science to be involved in the public arena. I know when I was president of the Pennsylvania chapter, I didn’t necessarily think that there was a lot of attention paid to our voice in the advocacy process. But now being on the inside, I get calls from people on both sides of the aisle saying, “What do you think about this? And how is this going to affect my constituents in terms of their receiving healthcare?” Or, “What are the implications of this?” So I’ve been very gratified and humbled to be a resource for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in terms of trying to generate good policy in the area of health care.

Dr. Dark: What do you hope to get accomplished in the short-term and long-term?

Dr. Venkat: My major legislative priority for this legislative session is medical debt relief for impoverished Pennsylvanians. There are examples in local government across the country where small amounts of money being appropriated in partnership with charitable groups that can identify and discharge or dismiss medical debt can make a huge difference for thousands of people.

These are our patients who we see who don’t get care elsewhere or are scared to get care because of the cost of health care and the debt that they incur.

Over the medium and long-term, I’m very fortunate to be the only physician in our general assembly and to be on committees that have jurisdiction over health care. So I’m very focused on, how do we make health care more affordable and accessible for the people in my district and for all Pennsylvanians? We have a health care staffing crisis. The cost of health care is prohibitive. Insurance coverage can feel like you don’t actually have insurance. We have scope of practice issues. So I think on all of those issues, my voice as a physician in the legislature can be helpful. That’s what I plan to focus on.

Dr. Dark is an associate professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the medical editor in chief of ACEP Now.