Marlando Pridgen, 41, is a native of Whiteville. He previously worked for the Columbus County school system and is the founder of a grassroots organization called the International Center for Educational and Economic Advancement.
Our Q&A with Marlando Pridgen
Pridgen’s responses to the following questions, which he provided during a video interview with NC Health News, have been edited for length and clarity.
What would be your plan for ensuring the future security/strength of Medicare?
We have to expand access to services to ensure that we reach all areas of America. Urban centers are where you have most of our doctors, and they make up a big base of our health care support. But I come from rural counties — and most of America is rural — and we have falling hospitals and hospital systems that are so jam-packed because, regionally, you have five or six counties poured into one center. My plan would be to add a rule expanding Medicare services to make sure there’s direct access in rural areas.
What would you support in Congress as a plan to help control health care/pharmaceutical costs?
What Biden and Harris have done with bringing down the cost of things such as prescriptions for insulin for diabetics is great, and I want to continue that with other drugs. There are a lot of continuing, basically endemic-type issues in America that people have to use drugs for regularly, and those drug costs are not regulated. They’re up and down. Diabetes is a great start, but we also need to control costs for people with HIV, AIDS and other diseases. I also support extending services for women in all areas to make sure that they have access to preventative care and prescription support for things like ovarian cancer.
Where do you stand on work requirements and targeted time limits for Medicaid?
Both of those are extreme regulations over something that should be dealt with more sensitively. First of all, we need to be very understanding toward people in various economic situations who could have pre-existing conditions, especially our veterans and military, that limit their ability to work. The second thing is, when it concerns targeted time limits, dealing with a person’s health is not something that you can put on a ticking timer on. Targeted time requirements can have an effective place in other parts of health care administration, but not when it concerns whether or not a person gets care.
What can the federal government do to support rural hospitals?
We have to ensure that we have centers of care within a decent range for a person to get to. There needs to be a bill that requires states to ensure that if X amount of people are living within a certain amount of distance, a substantial health care system is there to provide services. Without that, people’s lives are in danger. You can’t be safe from emergencies. You could possibly have someone die prematurely because they couldn’t get to an emergency department in time. We’ve got to do better time-adjusted analyses to ensure that, in rural areas, there is timely support for care, especially during emergencies.
Where do you stand on restoring funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program?
In urban areas, you’re able to get broadband for an inexpensive price because of the amount of people. However, in rural areas, we actually have to pay sometimes a lot more than people in urban areas because we have fewer people. I’m of the mindset that universal affordability of broadband access needs to be the way, no matter where you live. Internet availability needs to be more robust in areas that have limited populations so people there are not separated from the technology they need to thrive.
PFAS contamination is a nationwide issue; How do you address it while balancing public safety and business interests?
There are so many strands of PFAS that potentially are connected to carcinoid issues that we can no longer lightly carry on as if PFAS are not a contaminant to our health. Even the recent standards brought by the EPA only addressed about six strands of possible PFAS that they will be able to provide quality care for. PFAS must be recognized as a full class instead of just one set. Once that happens, we’ll be able to go after all the thousands of different chains of PFAS that there are. Additionally, if a big business here is releasing any form of chemical into our environment, I would love to see them offer full blood studies to employees so they can identify all the different pieces that may be in their blood and provide that information to their health care provider.
Is the federal government ready for the next pandemic?
Yes and no. My “no” is that you cannot address a pandemic when you’re so polarized over health care realities. We cannot go back and forth with this whole mindset, like we did with COVID-19, where one group is so extreme they’re spreading narratives about drinking Clorox, and the other group is literally going after a feasible, science-backed health care response. My “yes” is because we have experienced it and I believe we know the urgency of having preventive things in place. We have the playbook. My concern is that we’re too fraught with polarization to take a solid stance for the American people.
Do you think the federal government should enforce stricter requirements for nonprofit hospitals to justify their tax exemptions? Why or why not?
I believe that there is something that nonprofit hospitals have to provide to show credibility and accountability in the same way as for-profits would. That said, If nonprofit hospitals are receiving any of the continued benefits of funding that may come for health care needs, I would like to see that they’re responsible for reporting on those things on a regular basis. I would also like to see them make a long-term and short-term commitment to maintaining basic standards. Different groups can be a little bit extreme about what they will or will not do, and that’s why we need standards in place for them.
Where do you stand on federal abortion limits? What gestational limits, if any, would you set?
The only way that we will deal with abortion is to fully codify Roe v. Wade again. It maintained us and helped us for so many years. I also recognize that abortion support needs to be provided in places that don’t have Planned Parenthoods. Planned Parenthood is not in rural areas in my county. So what happens when a girl has to go somewhere? She has to travel at least an hour and a half or two hours to the nearest big city. The reality is that there are high levels of rape, incest and things of that nature happening in rural areas. We want to address abortion when it’s needed, when it’s a violation of someone’s body. To make that happen, access to abortion has to be expanded.
How can Congress improve access to child care? What states are leading the way that you think could be a good federal model?
Many of our local municipalities and cities are bringing in businesses and corporations that do not respect family values. I would love for the federal government to provide a benefit program for local governments to create tax incentives for new businesses that provide employees with assistance for child care costs. California has a very supportive system. They provide Family Medical Leave Act extensions for women who have to take leave for their children.
What steps would you take to improve access to mental health services and to address the opioid overdose crisis?
In this state, where we are right now, it is important that we bring more people to the table to ensure that people in all settings and areas who have experienced trauma have access to mental health support. We can start with our veteran services and make sure they have access to mental health providers. Adjusting to civilian life and coping with that new reality can lead veterans into opioid addiction. Mental health trauma connects to opioid addiction, and we have to map that out to ensure that there are funds and support for prevention as well as recovery.
Are there any other issues that you’d like to weigh in on?
First Lady Obama introduced a very successful nutrition program for our school systems. However, that turned into a program that provided a lot of apples and oranges to locations where kids were like, “Hey, I’m not eating or used to eating fruit, so it’s trash, right?” I would love for us to bring in our top culinary professionals to create a more palatable menu for school lunch. I also think we need to be more practical about making companies notify consumers about the effects of additives and other chemicals that are in our food, similar to how we regulate the tobacco industry.