Army experience motivates candidate’s opposition to Democrats’ health care plan

Progressive freshman representative Kim Schrier has a challenger in the 2020 reelection campaign, someone who believes he better reflects the eighth district that includes Sammamish, Auburn, Wenatchee, Issaquah, Ellensburg and so much more. Her challenger is former Army captain and current Amazon manager Republican Jesse Jensen of Bonney Lake.

He joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss how the loss of a friend motivated his run, and how the Democratic plan on health care will damage the current system.

“I was seven years in the army, and was fortunate to lead men and women on several different combat raids when I was part of Joint Special Operations Command on four trips overseas. I left the Army in 2014 feeling comfortable and confident that I was leaving the men and women that had served under my command in the more than capable care of the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs,” he said.

“Unfortunately this year in March, a good friend of mine and mentor chose to take his own life and unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time that this had happened. To me it was just a sort of another example of someone slipping through the cracks. It wasn’t but several days later when another progressive member of Congress said, ‘If the VA ain’t broke, don’t fix it.'”

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Jensen took issue with that congressmember highlighting the VA as a beacon of socialized medicine.

“Having been a consumer of that health care and seeing it firsthand, I knew that wasn’t the case. And second it felt like it was sort of being used for political gain. For me, that was a moment of an awakening. I needed to start paying attention again.”

Specifically, he’s opposed to the Medicare for All proposition supported by Kim Schrier because of the damage it will do to the system, and has an idea for something called universal catastrophic care.

“It’s not just folks that may not want their private healthcare lost. It’s not just restricted to Republicans … If you’re union member and you like your health care, it’s going away. And universal coverage does not mean universal access,” he said. “You may get this sort of universal coverage plan, but you’re not going to be able to find a doctor … Look at the Obamacare promise that you’d be
able to keep your physician on the Affordable Care Act.”

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“Universal catastrophic care is a way for anyone who has a medical issue to go in and get care–they’re not going to sort of have to lose their house in order pay for it. It’s reinsurance program of sorts that’s pegged to the poverty level.”

In speaking to folks all over the region, Jensen experienced the massive disconnect between the voters and those who claim to represent them.

“It was more than just veterans’ issues. It was health care, it was taxes, it was pocketbook issues where the current representation just doesn’t seem to be taking care of the folks here in the eighth,” he said. What we need is somebody who puts servant leadership above partisan politics before anything.”

“I had the pleasure of speaking with General Mattis, who said, ‘Hey, you know what, Jesse, we need more guys like you who are going to bat down bad ideas on the right and a bat down bad ideas on the left, and make the center bigger for everybody.'”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.

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