Last week, America watched as Sen. Mitch McConnell was wheeled onto the Senate floor after being absent for nearly three months following his June 14 hospitalization. Whether or not McConnell is fit to do his job is debatable. What isn’t debatable is that he had access to excellent health care when he needed it without having to worry about whether he could afford it, whether his insurance would cover it, or how he would pay the premiums.
That’s not a luxury most Americans have.
The day before McConnell reported back to work, I sat down with the man who hopes to replace him. Charles Booker is Kentucky’s Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, and we talked a lot about health care. Booker does not begrudge McConnell the high-quality health care he received,
but he does want every American to have the same access to affordable, quality care that the senator enjoys.
Too many American families struggle to pay medical bills and afford medications. Booker has experienced this himself. He’s spoken openly about his type 1 diabetes and how he watched his mother struggle to pay for his insulin as a teenager, and then how he even had to ration his medication as an adult while trying to feed his family.
No one should have to choose between paying bills and affording their medication, but that is a reality so many of our neighbors face.
For both candidates, health care is personal
I am not a diabetic, but I do rely on biologic injections for my autoimmune arthritis. I, too, have felt the stress that expensive medications bring even though I have what’s considered good employer health insurance.
Booker’s opponent in the race to replace McConnell, Congressman Andy Barr, has also faced medical hardship.
Barr’s wife died tragically from a heart condition at the age of 39. Barr channeled his grief into legislation to expand medical research to help people like his wife. The CAROL Act, the Cardiovascular Advances in Research and Opportunities Legacy Act, passed in 2022, with the help of McConnell, who introduced the Senate companion bill.
Though both Barr and Booker have personally felt the shortcomings of America's health care system, what they’ve done with those experiences is very different.
Booker and Barr offer different approaches
Barr still voted in favor of the 2025 so-called Big Beautiful Bill Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law’s Medicaid changes will increase the number of uninsured by 7.5 million by 2034.
Booker, on the other hand, worked side-by-side with Republican lawmakers in the Kentucky Legislature to create a law that helps patients keep access to their medicine in emergencies. Kevin’s law, as it’s called, allows pharmacists to dispense an emergency supply of certain life-saving medications when a prescription has expired or run out and the prescribing doctor cannot be reached. Patients who rely on medications like insulin and inhalers no longer have to ration their supply over holidays or long weekends while the pharmacy works to reach the prescribing physician.
Booker believes that health care is a human right and I happen to agree with him, but I also know that many conservatives tend to prickle at that phrasing. When I asked him how he responded to that, he said, "If you don't like that phrasing, call it whatever you want to call it." It does not matter if you are a Republican, independent, or a Democrat; "I don't want you to have to go without medicine to keep your lights on," he said.
He’s traveled the state of Kentucky and met with people "from the hood to the holler," and their political ideology does not matter.
"We're at a point in time where the bottom's coming out for so many people, and they know they need help," Booker said. "They know they need a government that works for them."
Right now, ours does not.
Kentucky voters will decide
That’s also why McConnell’s Senate seat in Kentucky is very much in play for this midterm election. A recent pollof 600 likely Kentucky voters found Barr nine points ahead initially, but the race was tied at 43% after voters were given information about both candidates.
So, it is possible for McConnell’s seat to go to a Democrat in November. Booker has worked with people from all walks of life, starting in Louisville’s Metro Council and then in the Kentucky Legislature. Even as the Director of Administrative Services for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, Booker worked in the trenches with everyday Kentuckians.
Booker has shown up for the people of Kentucky during protests and to comfort those who lost everything to deadly flooding. People know who he is and they know his heart.
Don’t lose sight of Kentucky in these midterm elections just because we voted for President Donald Trump. Remember, we also voted for Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat. Kentucky wants someone who’s been there, understands what they’re going through, and is willing to show up when we need them.
Charles Booker has shown us again and again that he will do just that.
Kentucky needs someone who wants us to have the kind of quality health care that Mitch McConnell has, and is willing to work across the aisle to make it happen. It shouldn’t be based on party lines.
"It’s really just based on humanity," Booker said. "And when we center humanity, bipartisanship can happen."
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is a nationally syndicated columnist and the co-editor of the forthcoming Anthology “Fast Forbidden Women” (Woodhall Press, 2027). She lives in Louisville and is the former opinion editor of the Courier Journal.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: McConnell got the health care he needed. Booker wants that for everyone | Opinion
