The Highwire with Del Bigtree - DON’T MESS WITH THIS TEXAS MEDICAL FREEDOM ADVOCATE

Episode Date: September 9, 2023

Founder & Executive Director of Texans for Medical Freedom, Jackie Schlegel, joins Del to discuss her 6 year long fight to pass a Medicaid Discrimination bill in Texas that has finally come to fruition. Hear how this warrior mom has worked to win over the hearts and minds of elected officials and has her eyes on any upcoming legislation that challenges the medical freedoms of all Texans.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

We've all got to find that thing that guides us, that drives us. So many of you come up to me and you say, Del, what is it I should be doing with my life? I mean, I feel like I want to be a part of this, and I say the same thing. You know, we all have different talents. I don't know what your talent is. Maybe you're a software designer, and you can design something and can change the world. Maybe you're a great speaker, or you want to start a podcast. All of that's fine.

I'm Dell. I started a podcast. It turned into this. It doesn't mean we're all going to do that. But what's awesome is when we see people that just seem to step outside their comfort zone and decide to make a difference in this world. That is exactly what my good friend, Jack Lee Schlegel, decided to do with her life. Take a look at this. Our guest today is Jackie Schlegel.

Jackie Schlegel. Jackie Schlegel. This is Jackie Schlegel. I'm just a mom. And like you, I'm here to fight like hell for my children. As a medical freedom advocate in a parent, a big child with special needs and complex health. health care challenges. This bill is incredibly important to me. Why do state legislators believe that they somehow know my children better than I do?

And so when I'm out in the community, they're questioning what they're seeing on the news or in the media or the push to override their rights. The tactic over the last 15 years was small bills that did not gain a lot of attention. The stage has been set heavily against us, and we have got to fight for Texas. We were forced to drive almost two hours to find a pediatrician who would accept her as a patient. Did you just say that a doctor wouldn't see you because a child didn't have HPV back? They wouldn't let me in the door. Are you kidding me? I'm not.

The mechanism of tyranny is the industry that seeks to own your body cradle to grave. Industry is carrying out their agenda and we happily give them the freedom to do so. We've already gone too far. We've got to rally up. You will not track me. Really, not only love Texas, we love our country. We love what we were founded on. I think that was one of the first thing that really struck me in this building when I first step foot in there. We stood outside the Senate doors. I was there for, for the first. For two days straight, it's been a very busy day at the Capitol, have visited hundreds of offices. I'm here with State Senator Drew Springer.

This is a chairman, Dustin Burroughs. This is Representative Cole Hefner. Mr. Sid Miller. My friend, Tim Davis. A lot of resources here in the state of Texas have been used to promote this vaccine. We just want to know the facts. One of our groups went into an office and they actually refused to meet with us because they felt like maybe there could be a risk of disease amongst our individual. There was no risk that we posed to anyone there except to maybe open a few minds.

Texas has a duty to step up and give us the answers where the federal government has failed. We are on the last resort. If you lose this battle, if you lose Texas, I promise you, you'd lose the entire country. Today is the beginning of a revolution. That's really what we need. This needs to be the start of it because there is a silent majority taking place and they don't know that they are feeling the same as their neighbors or their communities. Friends, it is not time for fear. It is time we take our power back.

I love you guys. Thank you. You want to talk about a warrior mom. A warrior mom talked me into getting a pedicure all the way back in 2016. This is us getting a pedicure during one of my first meetings. Come to town and you need to talk to you about what we're doing here. I am honored and pleasure to be joined right now by Jackie Schlegel, executive director of Texans for Medical Freedom. I've said it before.

You're probably one of the main reasons I moved to Texas. You have been at this for so many years. And the beauty of what I saw in Texas was that you actually had, you know, developed relationships in a way with the Senate and the Congress, the health committees, that they were listening. I mean, whether or not they were ready to make giant changes, I just found that when I went and testified that they were listening to what I had to say, which meant that you hadn't scared them away, like some of the, you know, other groups around the country. So, first of all, what's your approach? How is it that you've developed that relationship inside our government here in Texas? First of all, thank you so much for having me here. It's so great to be back in studio.

You have the best staff. They are so wonderful. I agree. And seeing that video was a blast from the past. I mean, we've been at this for a while, and we did. We met back in 2015, 2016. Really, I was just getting started, like you said, and I'm just a mom. And I did.

I called Mr. Vigtry and said, hey, you know, we got this event in Texas. Will you come out? and then picked you up in the airport and we ended up, my toes need to be done. You can get a pedicure. It's the first pedicure I've ever had. But we've had lots of conversations throughout the years. And to be honest, looking back when I first started, you know, I wasn't entirely sure with the best way to advocate was.

But my gut instinct walking into that building for the first time was they really weren't going to be receptive to somebody who was angry, irrational. they, you know, they weren't going to want to listen to that. Right. So my approach really was just one conversation at a time. If I can walk into this building, into this office, and this staffer, this legislator, this chairperson, and I can share my heart, and I can do it from a place of compassion and ask them what their experiences, meet them where they are, then I can start to win over hearts and minds.

And let me tell you, friend. throughout the last eight, nine years of doing this, there's been a lot of ups and downs. They haven't always been receptive, but the one thing they can always guarantee, when I step foot in that office, they are going to be treated with respect. They are going to have their questions answered. If I don't have an answer to their question, I'm going to go find it. And then we rely on experts to come in and bring the science and have the discussions and to show up and testify. We ask our members and our supporters to bring out their families and respectfully engage. And when you do that, you will slowly but surely start to see the tide turn.

And I think COVID did help with opening a lot of ears and eyes. But had we not been here, boots on the ground, the last eight, nine years paving that way, I don't think we would have been as successful as we've been. Well, you wouldn't have been able to use it, right? You wouldn't have had the relationships in order to say, see, this is what I was warning about. this we're talking about and it does feel like Texas. I mean I think a lot of people, especially, you know, I lived in California, would think Texas has got it easy. Why do they even need to worry about the vaccine issue? But you've actually been fighting here and you had some success this

year. What, you know, when you think about bringing bills and we brought a lot of bills around the country, many of them don't go anywhere, but you actually got something past this year. We did. I am so proud of House Bill 44. This is a bill that I've worked on for the last six years. It was very personal to me and my child and it's very personal to the families that we serve. You have a vaccine injured child. I sure do. And she is on the state Medicaid program. And this bill, we were having a really difficult time finding a provider that would see my child based on vaccination status. And this was not an issue unique to me. A lot of families, special needs, low income for whatever reason, you know, this child was vulnerable. They're on this program.

they rely on it and providers were discriminating based solely on vaccination. Mind you, including vaccines such as HPV, okay? So they had this blanket policy you couldn't get into the door and this was providing enormous hardship for our families. So we drafted this bill called the Medicaid discrimination bill. Over the course of six years, I locked those halls, I had those meetings, but we really picked up momentum with it. clear you've been pitching this to, you know, representatives for six years. I'm back again.

Here this year. Because I think a lot of people don't realize how much time and energy gets put into this. You know, you're just, you keep showing up. You keep showing up to sign up more and more people. So six years at it. Don't get into the door. Second three, man, it's amazing. And you got to keep at it. So in 2021, we made really good progress with this bill. We had a great legislator. We had a great, you know, person who believes. in the bill and wanted to advance this bill to the next level. And we got several steps in the process, but unfortunately it stalled out. It timed out.

But with that momentum we have, we came back this legislative session. We brought the bill. We got it through the House. We got nine Democrats on board with this bill. So when I say it was a bipartisan bill, it truly was. It was a great effort. We got it moved over to the Senate. again met all of those milestones and got it to governor abbott's desk and we're incredibly proud

that tomorrow this bill goes into law and this will protect our most vulnerable children and families with their right to access medical care so this is all about choice that the doctor cannot turn you away based on your medical status for medicating chip providers okay so if you're on medicate you're working with that what's so ironic about this issue for you is under the these circumstances, your child has all the medical issues that they have and need a medical physician because of the vaccine program. And now, and this is just a perfect example, right? All the side effects, or not all, but many of the side effects are listed to the vaccine, but as soon as it happens to you, you're all on your own. So it's not like, oh, sorry, you're one of the few that

didn't get a good reaction. Come on in and we're going to take care of that. They're really like, don't ever come in my office again. You can't even get in the door, which is really how I framed the discussion this legislative session. We have always called this the Medicaid discrimination bill. This session I presented this for what it was, which is access to care. There is a problem when you can't even step foot in the doctor's office to have the discussion about whether these vaccines are appropriate for your child. And in my discussions with the pediatricians who many were opposing this bill, you know, that was a big speaking point of how are you giving informed consent when you are stopping these families at the door. They are not even allowed in your facility.

You're sending these kids to urgent care in emergency rooms for basic medical care. This is Texas. In Texas, we take care of our citizens. What's that costing, you know, the taxpayer and everything that's in the body system, right? Good. The ICUs, ERs, whatever. When you look at, I mean, Texas, obviously, fairly conservative. But when you look at the writing on the wall, is there still a push? I mean, I've always said when I was moving here, I'm not moving to Texas because I think it's just going to be free forever. I think they're going to attack Texas because if they can take down Texas, they can take down

the world. They've got New York. They've got the two giant Democratic centers of the world, California and New York. But boy, if they could grab Texas, the most conservative. conservative state in the union, then this is all over pharmaics over the world. Do you feel that pressure coming in here? A thousand percent. I feel it in the legislature. I feel it in our communities. Look, the federal government, the overreach, the CDC, they are not stopping just because Texas passed a bill that protects our right to inform consent. Ultimately, their goal is to shove these

mandates down our throats whether you want them or not. We've seen that. It doesn't matter what the science says. I mean, they just, of, you know, completely railroad the science. They push through their agenda. We saw it with COVID. We've seen it with vaccine mandates. We've seen it with employer mandates. And so 100% here in Texas, all across the country, they are safer places, but there's no one that is off limits. And that is why we have to push back against the CDC and the complete overreach of government into our homes, no matter what state we live in. A lot of people I run into are totally jaded now.

Like the system doesn't work. I don't want to have anything to do. There's no point in voting and all of this. Yet when people like you come in here and say, we just passed a bill, what would you say to someone that says that? They've just given up on the entire political system. You know, I hear this.

I see it. I feel it. I've had advocates at the Capitol with me who burnout. But we don't have a choice. We do not have a choice. choice. What we did this legislative session is absolutely proof that if we stick with it, if we stay with it, if we are the calm, reasonable voice of freedom, of liberty, of pushing back, especially here in Texas, we don't like our rights infringed upon. That is something that we can agree upon.

So we need to get active. We need to get involved. And it has been a very challenging time, but now is not the time to let up. Look at your choice. children, think about their future and think about what we want to hand over to them. And come and join me at the Capitol. I have a lot of fun. You've been there before. I don't know if you would call it fun. Oh, it's fun.

I actually really, that's what got me in all this. I really love talking to the different representatives because it's a game, right? You go in, throw out about and thought, try and feel out where they're at and find where that soft place is in them, whether it's just they don't trust pharma or maybe, you know, they They don't like products being rushed out on the market. Whatever it is, you can find that place, or they have a soft space for, you know, children that are handicapped and having issues, which is part of the angle that you've brought in here. Jackie, it's always great to hear that we're winning and that it's possible. You represent just this great body of warrior moms that have stepped up, figured out this political system.

It's really, truly what makes me love this country. That is possible. And I love that you're here because you're proving it's still possible. We shouldn't give up. You obviously haven't six years to get a bill passed. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate that so much.

All right. Texas for Medical Freedom.org. Check out the work that Jackie's doing and join her at the Capitol if you want to pass some more bills. And if you are in your own state or city and you're wondering what's going on, you've got to get involved. You've got to get the Capitol. You've got to talk to those that represent you.