We like winning. The three of us have won in athletics, business and civic life.
Together, we guide the Kansas Health Foundation. We are all about winning here, too. We want Kansas to be ranked number one in health. Right now, Kansas is 31st and has been declining since the 1990s, when we were among the top 10.
To lead the nation in health, or even just to stop our slide, our state and communities must solve problems faster and more effectively.
An example of what not to do is our almost decade-long stalemate about creating affordable health insurance options for hard working Kansans.
Kansas is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid. Here’s a brief recap in case you need it:
The federal government provides health insurance subsidies for people who make over 100% of the federal poverty level ($24,860 per year for a family of three).
Medicaid is the health insurance for parents who earn less than 38% of poverty income ($9,447 per year for a family of three).
Empty nesters and adults without children don’t qualify for Medicaid unless they are pregnant or have a disability.
See the problem?
There are real people in this gap — people who make too much to get Medicaid but too little to get the subsidy. Approximately 150,000 Kansans are in that group.
They are the working poor. They are fellow Kansans, our neighbors, and they deserve affordable health care coverage.
Medicaid expansion is a good strategy to close the gap. It builds on an existing program and lets the federal government pay 90% of the solution.
Are there other strategies that could close that gap? Perhaps, but opponents to Medicaid expansion don’t seem to have one, and certainly not one that only has Kansas paying 10 percent of the cost.
Even peer states like Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma have realized expanding Medicaid makes sense.
Surveys show most Kansans want Medicaid expanded. It appears majorities of the Kansas House and Kansas Senate would vote yes. Gov. Laura Kelly is a staunch expansion supporter. What gives?
