By Alyson E Raletz
Editor’s note: A similar profile on Democrat Mark Sheehan will be featured in the News-Press later this week.
Both candidates in a St. Joseph House of Representatives race have described Rob Schaaf as a maverick.
While previously employed as the News-Press’ Opinion editor, Democrat challenger Mark Sheehan dubbed the incumbent so after going up against the governor on controversial health care issues.
Now Dr. Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, is using the adjective with pride in campaign speeches and advertisements to convince voters in the 28th House District that they should elect someone unafraid of fighting the establishment to a fourth term.
“I’m just persistent. I’m as persistent as a pit bull,” Dr. Schaaf said.
His list of goals and achievements certainly has a theme.
He pointed to a guiding statistic from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that put St. Joseph adjusted hospital prices as the fourth-highest in the nation among 232 metropolitan areas in 2001.
Since being elected to office in 2002, he’s advocated for higher Medicaid reimbursements for doctors and multiple ways to lower health care costs. He now serves as the chairman of a House health care transformation committee.
He took flak from both parties this year when his efforts to increase hospital competition and transparency tripped up Gov. Matt Blunt’s Insure Missouri proposal to expand Medicaid eligibility. The Missouri Hospital Association, which represents Heartland Health, had launched an intense lobbying effort against any Insure Missouri bill with those provisions, and the whole proposal ultimately died.
Now the association’s political action committees and Heartland’s chief executive officer, Lowell Kruse, are financially backing Mr. Sheehan.
“This race is of vital importance,” MHA President Marc Smith stated in a letter to hospital CEOs.
Mr. Sheehan criticizes Dr. Schaaf for making enemies in Jefferson City because of a personal vendetta.
“That is how my opponent would like to characterize me, just in order to make me look small — that I have a vendetta against Heartland. What vendetta?” Dr. Schaaf said.
Mr. Sheehan pointed to the Heartland-owned Northwest Health Services buyout of a practice where Dr. Schaaf worked in 1997. Northwest Health, which operates several federally qualified health centers in St. Joseph, didn’t hire Dr. Schaaf.
Former CEO Susan Wilson, now of the Missouri Primary Care Association, said Northwest Health hired physicians who were board- certified. It’s a standard of training not required to practice medicine in the state of Missouri that Dr. Schaaf admittedly didn’t obtain because he didn’t want to undergo the three-year residency requirement.
Dr. Schaaf never applied to work for Northwest, Ms. Wilson said. He has had staff privileges at Heartland since Dec. 3, 1985.
He worked closely with Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, in 2007 to craft MO HealthNet, the state’s updated version of Medicaid.
The Infection Control Act he sponsored that made it into law in 2004 is his crowning achievement as a legislator, he said. The law now requires hospitals to post infection rates online.
“I believe more lives have been saved by that one thing than probably the sum total of my whole medical professional life,” he said.
Beth Wheeler, external relations director for Missouri Western State University, said while Dr. Schaaf hasn’t been the primary sponsor of any major higher education bills, he’s used his vote for the school’s favor.
“He was a big supporter of our university status,” Ms. Wheeler said, noting he had also backed funding proposals for Western.
He said he hopes to be re-elected so he can continue to pursue legislation he refers to as “any willing provider” laws that would protect the doctor-patient relationship during insurance changes. He also aims to draft legislation to help eliminate the “wage trap,” when people on public assistance would be worse off financially if they took higher-paying jobs because they’d lose their benefits.
Alyson E. Raletz can be reached
(c) 2008 St. Joseph News-Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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