Soon after the announcement was made that St. Francis Catholic hospital would be closed in Topeka, Gov. Sam Brownback said, “An all-out effort is underway to keep St. Francis open.”
One very credible way would be for the governor to swallow his pride and encourage legislators again to pass expansion of Medicaid. And then sign the measure into law.
A couple of weeks ago a bill to do just that passed by wide margins in both Legislative chambers. Brownback, aghast that anything to do with the Affordable Care Act would rear its head in Kansas, quickly picked up his veto pen. An attempt to override the veto failed in the House, precluding an effort in the Senate.
The failure leaves about 180,000 indigent Kansans on the outside looking in at health insurance coverage.
Kent Thompson and Adam Lusker, representing Allen County in the House, supported expansion.
Caryn Tyson, our senator, voted no, saying it was wasn’t good public policy to give assistance to able-bodied Kansans. A point: The poor can include able-bodied folks. Not all jobs pay a living wage.
How is Medicaid expansion connected to St. Francis’ well-being? Listen to David Jordan, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas: “There’s no question that St. Francis would be a stronger hospital had Medicaid expansion happened,” because the health care needs of the poor would be on the federal government’s nickel, not the hospital’s.
No accounting of what Medicaid payments would have meant to the nonprofit hospital have been announced. However, information accompanying closing of the 378-bed facility gave some indication. The Associated Press looked at federal income tax returns available online and discovered the hospital lost nearly $26 million from 2012 to 1015. The management group, SCL Health of Denver, put five-year losses, including 2016, at $117 million.
Not all of those losses may be laid at the feet of patients who might have been covered by Medicaid, but third-grade arithmetic tells us its absence was a factor.
Similarly, when Mercy Hospital in Independence closed in 2015, officials cited the state’s failure to expand Medicaid as a key factor.
ON THE HOMEFRONT Allen County Regional Hospital’s bottom line is affected by its charge to treat anyone who arrives at its doors, whether they have traditional insurance, Medicare or Medicaid or nothing. Turning away a person in need of care is illegal, and just as importantly morally wrong.
Obamacare, with whatever faults it might have, increased immeasurably the number of people who could for the first time be free of financial anxiety if beset by a healthcare emergency. Meanwhile, few people honestly accept without reservation the disadvantages of being poor. It is urban legend that X number of folks bask “in taking advantage of the system,” in order to avoid employment.
When legislators return to Topeka on May 1, we pray they take to heart the importance of expanding Medicaid in order to ensure better financial health for hospitals and the like and the physical health of thousands of Kansans.
— Bob Johnson
