Health survey
A quarter of Kansas working-age adults and a third of the states children live in households dealing with medical debt.
Thats one of the takeaways from a new report commissioned by five Kansas and Missouri health foundations, believed to be the largest survey to date of health consumers in the two states.
In Kansas, about 2,600 adults and minors were included. The survey answers point to problems with access to dental and mental health care, among other services.
A fifth of the working-age respondents in Kansas lacked health insurance.
David Jordan, president of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, said the report sheds light on problems that also affect peoples ability to work or go to school, and hence contribute to the economy.
Medical debt and lack of insurance is financially crippling families in Kansas and Missouri, Jordan said. Its preventing them from getting the treatment that they need.
Medical debt affects peoSheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project.
Its a community-wide issue, he said.
The survey doesnt show what percentage of households struggling to pay medical bills had accrued their debt despite having health insurance, as opposed to those without it.
Tom Duffy, a senior research scientist at RTI International, which conducted the Kansas-Missouri survey and has examined data from other parts of the country, said some states that expanded Medicaid to cover more low-income adults saw their medical debt rates go down.
Thirty-four states have expanded Medicaid and three others are considering doing so. Kansas and Missouri, however, are not among them.
In 2017 the Kansas Legislature voted to expand Medicaid to cover Kansans earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. But then-governor Sam Brownback vetoed the bill. Brownback had argued Medicaid shouldnt extend to adults without disabilities, and that including them would be bad for state finances and for Kansans with disabilities.
The new survey found that 44 percent of working-age Kansans (ages 19 to 64) whose household income falls below 138 percent of the poverty line dont have health insurance.
OTHER FINDINGS in the new survey:
Fourteen percent of the working-age Kansans who took part in the survey said the cost of health care or a lack of health insurance was preventing them from seeking medical care right now. Their most common needs were dental care, general medical care and surgery. One-fifth said they were skimping on their prescribed medications for example, by skipping doses to save money.
