‘Time is running out’ for people dying without Medicaid expansion

Kansans around the state have gathered at 23 community meetings to discuss why Kansas should expand Medicaid, the insurance program for certain people with low incomes or who are disabled.

Rickae Strack, an advanced-practice registered nurse at HealthCore Clinic in Wichita, talked about the patients she treats daily, who can’t afford care for life-threatening conditions.

“I have patients that come in and have tears in their eyes,” she said. “. . . There’s times they’re falling in my arms and crying.”

Strack said one of her patients currently has a cancerous tumor, but can’t afford life-saving measures to remove it.

“We’re running out of time, because we have legislators and political leaders who don’t see the vision, who don’t have respect for human life.”

Those patients would be able to receive health insurance if state lawmakers voted to expanded Medicaid, called KanCare in Kansas.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was created with the intent that all states would expand Medicaid programs. A Supreme Court ruling later left that decision to each state.

Kansas is one of 19 states that have not expanded Medicaid. Those states have an insurance coverage gap – a group of people who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but make too little to qualify for tax credits and subsidies that help make health insurance affordable.

Health-related organizations have pushed for years for the Legislature to expand Medicaid.

The Legislature so far has been reluctant to do so, largely because of political opposition to Obamacare and the belief it would cost the state too much money.

Those health groups are now taking their case to the public.

Following Strack’s speech, Tom Bell, president and CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association, said, “There’s this disconnect between people like her, who see a problem and solve it, and the politicians who see a problem and point fingers.”

A Harvard and City University of New York study estimated between 113 and 330 Kansans would die per year from preventable health problems from the state not expanding Medicaid.

Lisa Vayda, a pharmacist with multiple sclerosis, said parents have asked her which of their own medications they can cut in half, because they can’t afford to fill their medication for the month and pay for their children’s medicine as well.

“In all of this, do not forget who the enemy is,” she said. “The enemy is pain, suffering and early death.”

‘Nearly destitute’

Without Medicaid expansion, non-disabled adults without kids don’t qualify for Medicaid at all, even if they don’t have income.

Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project, which is part of the Kansas Association for the Medically Undeserved, said many people believe that if someone is low income, they qualify for the program.

“That is absolutely far form the truth, he said.

“You have to be nearly destitute to qualify for this program.”

For example, he said, a single mother with two children would need to make $6,600 per year or less to qualify for health insurance with Medicaid.

“We’ve actually given people like her a disincentive to get a job,” Weisgrau said.

The Alliance for a Healthy Kansas is a nonprofit organization that formed this year to widen support for Medicaid expansion among Kansans, and thus among lawmakers.

Members of the alliance have traveled around the state, holding forums to encourage Kansans to contact legislators in support of expansion. The alliance started its statewide tour in Wichita in June. It capped its 23rd meeting on Tuesday evening back in Wichita.

Four area legislators attended the meeting Tuesday.

‘We’re all taxpayers here’

The Alliance for a Healthy Kansas is pushing for lawmakers to discuss Medicaid expansion during the upcoming legislative session in January.

“We’ve had support of legislators in the past, but not enough legislators,” Weisgrau said.

The alliance says expansion would be not only budget neutral, but potentially a moneymaker for the state. Furthermore, the alliance says expansion could create more jobs – to the tune of 563 in Sedgwick County alone – and improve the financial stability and health of Kansans.

Lawmakers and the governor have disputed the credibility of the report commissioned by the Kansas Hospital Association that said Medicaid expansion could make the state money.

“Let’s say I’m wrong,” Weisgrau said. “Let’s say it costs us money. Why does that disqualify us from having a discussion? We’re all taxpayers here, shouldn’t we have a say? Were all federal taxpayers, shouldn’t we have that money come back to Kansas?”

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "‘Time is running out’ for people dying without Medicaid expansion."