Health-care activists plan vigil to protest states’ stance on Medicaid expansion

Picking up on an idea that began with a Wichita social worker, health-care activists in Kansas and 13 other states will gather Saturday for “Death Count” vigils, protesting states’ refusals to expand Medicaid to close a coverage gap for the working poor.

The Wichita vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Old Town Plaza on Mead just north of Second Street. A similar protest will be held 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. near the Oak Ridge Mall in Overland Park.

The vigils are designed to protest governors, including Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who have refused federal aid to expand Medicaid to close a coverage gap created when the Supreme Court upheld most – but not all – of the federal Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare.

Wichita vigil organizers are planning around a turnout of at least 330 people – one to represent each of the 330 Kansans who could die in 2014 from lack of health care coverage. The number is drawn from a Harvard/City University of New York study that estimated between 113 and 330 Kansans would die per year from preventable health problems if the state doesn’t expand Medicaid.

The idea for the vigil originated with Lindsey Benage, a Wichita social worker. It spread through the network of the liberal group MoveOn.org to other states, said Jan Swartzendruber of Newton, the regional coordinator for MoveOn.

In its ruling on the ACA, the Supreme Court upheld most of the landmark national health-care law as constitutional. But the court did strike down a part of the law that would have required states to expand Medicaid to cover everyone whose family income is below 138 percent of the poverty level – about $16,100 for an individual or $32,900 for a family of four.

People who make more than that are eligible to get insurance through subsidized market exchanges created by the ACA.

That split decision created a coverage gap for working-poor individuals and families between 100 and 138 percent of the poverty level. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for the ACA exchanges.

In an effort to close the gap, the federal government offered to cover the cost of expanding Medicaid for the first three years after ACA implementation and to pay 90 percent of the cost after that.

But in 23 states where the president and the ACA are unpopular – mostly in the south, the plains and the mountain west – governors have declined the federal money to expand Medicaid.

This story was originally published October 16, 2014 at 7:04 AM with the headline "Health-care activists plan vigil to protest states’ stance on Medicaid expansion."