Issue Position: Medicaid Funding

Issue Position

Medicaid provides health care for the poorest Kansans, many of whom suffer debilitating conditions which prevent them from working. Meanwhile, employer paid insurance and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provide healthcare coverage for Kansans with better paying jobs and Medicare provides healthcare coverage for Kansans over 65. The problem is the Kansans left in the middle. They work at low paying jobs, without employer benefits. They earn too much for Medicaid coverage and not enough to benefit from the ACA. The ACA provided federal dollars to Kansas through Medicaid expansion to fill this gap. The governor and his allies in the legislature have now refused over 2.2 Billion Dollars for health care in Kansas. As a result, these Kansans in the middle have no healthcare coverage. They cannot afford preventive healthcare and when catastrophe strikes they have no insurance. As a result, Kansas hospitals pick up the tab. Larger hospitals like Via Christi and Wesley pass this expense on to the rest of us in higher hospital charges resulting in higher insurance premiums. Meanwhile, small rural hospitals, which are necessary to maintaining the quality of life and preserving life throughout Kansas, are on the brink of bankruptcy and others, such as the Independence Hospital have closed their doors.

If we want the excellent doctors we train at the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita to stay in Kansas we cannot expect them, or other health care professionals to provide free care to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Kansans.

The state must change course, accept the federal funding, and close the "Medicaid Gap," otherwise we will continue down a road that leaves thousands of working Kansans uninsured, raises the cost of health care for the rest of our citizens, causes good doctors to leave the state and pushes small Kansas hospitals into bankruptcy.

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