Kris Kobach isnt very good with numbers, especially those with a lot of zeros.
The man who built a political career by getting nine people (as in no zeros) to plead guilty to voter fraud now says he can reform the Medicaid program and save Kansas $1.9 billion (as in nine zeros) every year.
Kobach has rolled out his magical solution just in time for the upcoming general election and, hopefully, late enough to avoid the serious scrutiny such a claim deserves.
This is the same Kris Kobach who also claimed that between 3 million and 5 million people (thats with six zeros) voted illegally for Hillary Clinton in the last election.
Even with the aid of President Trumps Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, he failed to locate a single one of them.
If Kobach can be wrong with an allegation that involves six zeros, adding three more zeroes doesnt improve the likelihood of either his accuracy or credibility.
When his campaign was asked how he arrived at nearly $2 billion in Medicaid savings it offered no response.
As voters and the media, ours is not to question why but to accept whatever the governor wannabe says at face value.
Apparently, Kobach is basing his claim loosely on numbers provided by Dr. Josh Umbehr who operates what is called a direct primary care clinic in Wichita. In a nutshell, those who utilize this type of clinic pay doctors a monthly or annual fee for unlimited primary care.
Kobach claimed during a candidate forum in Garden City that if the direct primary care system were applied to the 425,000 individuals enrolled in the states Medicaidprogram (aka, KanCare), the cost would tumble from $3.2 billion annually to $1.3 billion.
So, how is this huge windfall for Kansans going to be possible?
According to Umbehr, he made the calculation of savings during dinner with former state budget director Steve Anderson back in 2013 or 2014. Umbehr says they figured the discounted prices he provides his patients and applied them to KanCare.
They scratched out the numbers on the back of an envelope a really big, nine-by-nine envelope, says Anderson.
Umbehr says they calculated savings of about $1 billion. Anderson remembers it being between $450 million and $600 million.
Former Kansas Medicaid director Robert Day has a simple observation after hearing their claims of astronomical savings.
