By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector
Kansas Republican legislative leadership remains steadfast in opposition
PITTSBURG — Blake Benson stood in his hometown’s hospital lobby to deliver economic and health care justification for expanding Medicaid enrollment among lower-income workers in Kansas.
Benson, president of the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce and board chairman of Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, said a resolution had to be found to political conflict that left Kansas among 10 states stiff arming appeals to broaden access to health benefits of Medicaid.
Ending the blockade on expansion by Republican leaders of the Kansas Legislature would deliver $11 million annually to hospitals and clinics in Crawford County, he said.
“Expanding health care coverage to more than 1,600 uninsured employees right here in our community would create a healthier workforce and increase productivity while reducing absenteeism and employee turnover in our local businesses,” Benson said.
Benson said Medicaid expansion proposals offered by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and strategies adopted in 40 states, including the four surrounding Kansas, would deliver health insurance under the state- and federal-funded Medicaid program to people who made too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but not enough to afford traditional private health insurance.
“Folks, these are our neighbors,” Benson said. “They work hard. They’re good people. And, they deserve access to health care.”
Kelly, who has submitted five plans for Medicaid expansion during her tenure as governor, was in Pittsburg for the third leg of her “Healthy Workers, Healthy Economy” tour to ask Kansans to contact House and Senate members to urge action on Medicaid. Her bid to ignite public interest in the issue took her previously to Winfield and Garden City. She expects to continue the statewide tour until start of the 2024 legislative session in January.
She said she would present the Legislature with her sixth plan for reforming Medicaid and declared it would be her top priority in the upcoming session.
“The reason I’m so focused on this issue is because by expanding Medicaid we’ll give thousands of working Kansans access to affordable health care,” Kelly said. “Contrary to what some would have you believe, 140,000 Kansans work but don’t have health insurance. Many hold down jobs waiting tables. They work in our child care centers. They care for our seniors. Or they’re in other industries that don’t traditionally offer employee-based health insurance.”
The governor said expansion would create thousands of jobs in Kansas, assist financially vulnerable hospitals and clinics, and allow people to have prompt, affordable access to medical care.
Under federal law, 90% of the cost for expanding Medicaid would be funded by the federal government and Kansas would be responsible for providing 10% of the funding. Kansas foregoes about $66 million in federal aid each month it didn’t take advantage of expansion provisions under the Affordable Care Act, Kelly said.
Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, both Republicans, have argued Medicaid expansion was an unwarranted overreach by Congress that ballooned federal spending and unnecessarily disturbed the health insurance market. The Legislature’s GOP leaders described the governor’s Medicaid tour as a pitch to deepen the welfare state for benefit of “able-bodied adults” who opted not to hold down a job.
In March 2017, then-Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed a bill, passed 81-44 in the House and 25-13 in the Senate, that would have added Kansas to states expanding Medicaid access. Brownback, who personally opposed Medicaid expansion, said the cost of enlarging Medicaid was “irresponsible and unsustainable.”
So far, Kelly said, Kansas had rejected $6.6 billion in federal funding that could have flowed into the state had lawmakers agreed to expand eligibility.
Kelly said expansion shouldn’t be viewed as a Republican or Democratic issue because a survey of Kansans showed 78% of participants, regardless of partisan affiliation, supported enlarging the reach of Medicaid.
She asserted expansion could have prevented closure of three southeast Kansas hospitals since 2014. She pointed to reports indicating as many as 60 rural hospitals in Kansas were in financial jeopardy.
“Trust me when I tell you that there are many Republican legislators who are just as frustrated as I am that we are unable to get this done,” Kelly said. “I refuse to give up on this fight with the Legislature.”
She said the state’s Medicaid eligibility standards were inadequate. She said rules in Kansas meant a single mother of two could qualify for Medicaid — known as KanCare in Kansas — if her annual income was less than $9,500. In other words, the governor said, a mother of two working 30 hours per week at a minimum wage job earned too much to qualify in Kansas.
Currently, 480,000 Kansans were enrolled in Medicaid. An estimated 260,000 people, including 38,000 children, go without health insurance in Kansas, Kelly said.