Medicaid expansion proponents launch new campaign in Kansas

A coalition of business, faith and health interests convened Monday to launch an election-year campaign to build momentum for state approval of Medicaid expansion capable of delivering basic health care to 150,000 uninsured adults.

Gov. Sam Brownback, House Speaker Ray Merrick and other Republican lawmakers have maintained a robust line of defense against attempts to extend a key Medicaid provision of the Affordable Care Act into Kansas. Adoption of broader coverage for low-income Kansans, along the lines of programs implemented in more than 30 states, would pour hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal funding into the state's insurance coverage gap.

The Rev. Robert Schremmer, a Catholic priest and vicar general of the Dodge City diocese, called upon politicians of faith to honor Biblical values of compassion by aiding poor and sick people trapped in a cycle of economic hardship, fear and delayed health care.

"The issue is an important moral value within virtually all faith traditions," Schremmer said. "We pray and we ask that our governor and state legislators would allow the compassion they feel and the mercy they show as people of faith to impel them to act in justice for the working poor in need of health care."

He spoke at the Capitol in front of a live ticker projecting how much money had been rejected by Kansas' refusal to adopt expansion of Medicaid, which was renamed KanCare by the Brownback administration. So far, the state has turned down $1.15 billion in extra Medicaid funding.

Activists with Alliance for a Healthy Kansas don't plan to endorse candidates for House or Senate races in 2016, but participants in the organization intend to articulate for potential voters the health, economic and quality of life features of expansion. The risk of watching more rural Kansas hospitals close will be central to debate.

"Yet another year has gone by without expanding KanCare. Our state cannot afford to delay action any longer," said David Jordan, executive director of Alliance for a Healthy Kansas.

Political opponents have been hostile to Obamacare, and Brownback signed a law requiring the Legislature to grant him authority to proceed with Medicaid expansion. House Speaker Merrick, a Stilwell Republican, removed representatives and altered leadership of committees to impede bills tied to expansion. Legislation that could be amended to allow Medicaid expansion was kept off the House and Senate floors.

"As the governor has said before, we will not support an expansion plan that does not have a work requirement, is not sustainable and which puts the needs of able-bodied adults above the disabled and our most vulnerable citizens," said Eileen Hawley, the governor's spokeswoman.

She said expansion in other states was a "fiscal disaster" and assertions the program would produce thousands of new jobs were inaccurate.

Eric Voth, a physician and vice president of primary care at Stormont Vail Health in Topeka, said at the alliance's news conference that elected state government leaders wouldn't dare reject $1.1 billion in federal funding for military or highway priorities. Lawmakers’ attitude takes a sudden turn when the subject is health care, he said.

"It's really critical that we cast off this great hysteria of Obamacare," Voth said. "It's time we get a grip."

He said Kansas emergency rooms were the primary-care refuge of people without health coverage. It has been his experience that many of these people postpone treatment for ailments until they reached near fatal conditions.

"They choke up emergency rooms and when they come in with life-threatening situations we've got a terrible backup," Voth said.

Brad Stratton, chairman of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, said the organization sought development of a Kansas formula for maximizing access to affordable health care through expansion of Medicaid.

The objective is quality health care for the workforce, economic viability of medical providers and advancement of strong businesses, he said.

"We need each other in order to succeed and grow our respective Kansas businesses and, therefore, the Kansas economy," Stratton said.

Stratton said removing the state income tax exemption on 330,000 business owners in Kansas would provide sufficient revenue to meet the state government's cost of expanding Medicaid.

Local hospitals will play a role in determining fate of cities and towns in rural Kansas, said David Toland, executive director of Thrive Allen County, a health and economic development organization.

Hospitals, like public schools, are primary economic anchors in places like Allen County, he said. The county's population stands at 13,000, a far cry from 30,000 one century ago, but residents voted five years ago to build a critical-access hospital out of a desire for health care services capable of serving interests of individuals and businesses, he said.

"Communities survive because they are places people want to live. To be blunt, people don't want to live in communities that don't have access to a nearby hospital. Just ask Independence about the damage done there in less than one year of losing its hospital," Toland said.

Alice Weingartner, executive director of the Shawnee County Health Center, said adoption of Medicaid expansion would lead to allocation of $1.2 million to the county's center.

"It would mean fewer people would have to decide between going to the doctor, paying their rent or buying food to feed their family," she said.