Paul Talks Healthcare with Paducah Providers

U.S. Senator and ophthalmologist Dr. Rand Paul was in Paducah on Tuesday to talk about healthcare with local professionals and perform pro-bono eye surgeries.

Paul held a town hall at Baptist Health Tuesday afternoon with area physicians and other medical professionals. He gave a presentation regarding his thoughts on the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The center of Paul's message was how to lower the cost of insurance. 

The senator proposed creating insurance group plans for the individual and small business owner. Paul said, "I would legalize the ability for them to join a coop or a buying group. Imagine if you belonged to AARP, and there are 30 million people in AARP,  Imagine if they hired one person to negotiate for them. Talk about leverage." Paul added that the added buying power of having one person negotiate for a large group would bring down the price of health coverage dramatically.

Independent physician and small business owner Dr. Kyle Turnbo attended the town hall, and said the senator's thoughts were outstanding on trying to lower the cost of health care, which Turnbo said is too high. "It got out of hand along time ago," Turnbo said. "There's no reason, as providers, that we can't provide the same healthcare or better at a more reasonable cost, but there's so many nuances to rules and regulations that increase the overhead,"

Turnbo also said it's time to take out some of the hurdles between the patients and doctors.

Prior to the town hall discussion Paul performed cataract surgery free of charge for some area patients. Paul has come to Paducah to perform surgery with Dr. Barbara Bowers several times over the last few years.