By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Closure of Herington Hospital after lengthy financial struggles and low patient volume invigorated political debate Wednesday in Kansas about the potential of funneling vast amounts of federal funding into rural health care by expanding eligibility for Medicaid.
Kansas is among 10 states that haven’t opted to broaden access to health care under the Affordable Care Act despite expansion of the program in neighboring states of Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Former state Rep. Dave Baker, a Republican who represented the Herington and Junction City areas, said loss of the hospital was a blow to health care access for Herington residents as well as the economy in the central Kansas community.
“Rural hospitals play an essential role in the livelihood of small towns like Herington by creating jobs and providing necessary care,” said Baker, of Council Grove. “Expanding Medicaid will help prevent other small Kansas communities from losing their hospitals in the near future. Failing to expand Medicaid is just another one of the many attacks on small Kansas communities from state government.”
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who plans to recommend in January her sixth plan for expanding Medicaid, said rural hospitals in states that declined to adopt Medicaid expansion were six times more likely to be shut down than rural hospitals in expansion states.
“This closure makes clear the absolute necessity of expanding Medicaid this upcoming legislative session,” Kelly said. “Eight hospitals have now closed since we’ve had the option to increase access to affordable health insurance and support our hospitals, and over half of our rural hospitals are at risk of following suit.”
Kelly said Kansas legislators were denying the state’s health care system $66 million each month it refused to expand access to Medicaid. Overall, the governor said, Kansas had turned aside $6.6 billion that would have flowed through hospitals and clinics.
Kelly said 78% of Kansans expressed interest in broadening availability to Medicaid. Under the ACA, the federal government would pay 90% of expansion costs and the state would be responsible for 10% of providing additional health care.
On Monday, the Herington Hospital board of directors said the facility would cease providing medical care, but would allow patients to secure their health records. The hospital had operated in Herington since 1919.
“This decision follows extensive evaluations and considerations stemming from lengthy financial struggles and consistently low patient volumes,” the board said in a statement. “The support from the Herington community has been invaluable throughout our history, not only in choosing Herington Hospital for care but also in the countless volunteer hours given over the years.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, and Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, said last month they had no intention of allowing the 2024 Legislature to add Kansas to the list of Medicaid expansion states.
“Republicans support health care freedom and expanding access to affordable care through cost transparency, more competition and less government regulation over your consumer choices,” Masterson said in a speech. “Unfortunately, the governor’s party remains focused almost solely on government-run health care, which would dramatically expand the administrative state and harm the very people for whom the Medicaid safety net was intended.”
Hawkins said it would be wrong for Kansas to allow low-income adults into Medicaid when the state hadn’t provided full access to disabled Kansans to programs included in Medicaid.