Uninsured college student’s story elicits tears, sympathy at legislative forum

A 21-year-old Wichita State University student had a room full of people tearing up at a public legislative forum Wednesday night as she told of struggling with multiple sclerosis without health insurance.

Breaking down in tears of her own, Marcillene Dover, a science education student, pleaded with lawmakers to expand KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program that provides health coverage for low-income people.

It was a signature moment in a night in which more than 30 local residents came before lawmakers with issues ranging from voting rights to guns to slot machines at the dog track. The crowd packed the jury room at the Sedgwick County Courthouse, and at least 20 speakers were turned away when time ran out.

Dover told lawmakers her symptoms started in 2013 with a strange feeling in her legs. It progressed to where she was stumbling and falling and, on occasion, had to be helped to class.

“I tried not to worry and just to carry on, knowing that I didn’t have insurance,” she said. “Then one day at work, I started slurring.”

She said she read on a website that that was a symptom of MS, but “I thought, ‘No way, not me, I’m 21 years old.’ ”

“Eventually I did schedule an appointment with a neurologist,” she said. “I had a few months to save up the $300 it was going to cost me.”

An MS organization paid for her to have an MRI to confirm the preliminary diagnosis.

“I was at lunch (tutoring) at the high school when I got the call that made it official. I had MS. I couldn’t help but start bawling. I told myself that any news is good news, it’s better than not knowing. But that’s not true,” she said. “I wanted to curl up into a ball and die. … I had to figure out how I was going to pay for this new, very expensive part of my life.”

Waiting lists decried

She said she was especially dismayed at Gov. Sam Brownback’s stance against expanding KanCare while people with disabilities are on waiting lists for services.

“I think it is shameful that anyone would pit people who are on that list living with MS against people like me who are living with MS and uninsured,” she said. “KanCare expansion could keep me off that list. I’m asking for you guys to look beyond statements that blatantly seek to divide us into pockets of people to pity and instead see us as people who are just trying to be happy and live our lives.”

Although the effect on the crowd was emotional and obvious, Dover said she doesn’t know whether her story got through to enough legislators to get Medicaid expansion passed. She said she told her story in a KanCare hearing last year, but House leadership blocked the expansion bill from coming to a vote.

Dover falls into the Medicaid gap, an artifact of politics and court decisions related to the Affordable Care Act.

Dover is ineligible for KanCare because she has no children, but she doesn’t make enough money to qualify for subsidized health care under the Affordable Care Act.

The federal government offered states money to cover 90 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid to cover the gap.

Brownback turned that decision over to the Legislature, where the leadership has thus far blocked efforts to expand KanCare.

Between sessions this year, House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, removed pro-expansion moderate Republicans from the Health Committee.

Questions of cost

One of the replacements, Rep. John Whitmer, R-Wichita, said the Legislature isn’t deaf to issues like Dover’s. He said there is still a possibility of expansion if questions over cost can be worked out.

Whitmer said the estimate he’s heard is that it will cost Kansas, already cash-strapped, $1.2 billion over 10 years, assuming caseloads don’t expand too much.

He said he wants to look at a “revenue neutral” expansion plan like the one that passed in Indiana.

He’d also like to see financial safeguards so the state could shrink Medicaid back if the federal government backs off the 90 percent commitment and to have some co-pays that would discourage frivolous use of medical care.

“If we can find that kind of bill, I think we can pass it,” he said. “But all that’s all theoretical and good, and you hear a personal story like that, it’s tough, it really is.”

Beth King, a representative of billionaire businessman Phil Ruffin, told lawmakers that they could get some of the money for services like expanding KanCare if they allow a re-vote on slot machines at the shuttered Wichita Greyhound Park. Ruffin has business interests that include casinos and racetracks.

The racetrack closed in 2007 after a public vote coupled with a proposed major casino failed.

“Mr. Ruffin remains willing to invest between $50 and $100 million in the Wichita Greyhound Park to reopen it with dog racing and slot machines,” King said.

That would create 500 local jobs and $50 million in gaming revenue for the state, King said.

“I think you might be able to spend some of this new revenue on the services that folks tonight are talking to you about,” King said.

Concealed carry

Another issue that brought a rousing response from the crowd was concealed carry guns.

Last year, the Legislature passed a bill to allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry it loaded and concealed.

Bad move, said Latasha Smith, who took the required training and obtained her concealed-carry permit before the law was relaxed.

“I feel like everyone should have to take that same test I had to take,” she said. “I think that everyone should have to take the shooting test; that means that you can aim and you can see.”

She said she had a road-rage run-in with an unlicensed armed man that was so serious she had to report it to police.

“I feel like if you want it, you should have to get it the same way I had to get it,” she said. “Otherwise, just because you don’t have a felony, you can carry a gun? No. … Everybody don’t know what to do with guns.”

And several residents called on state lawmakers to put an end to restrictive voter identification and proof-of-citizenship laws that they say are suppressing the right to vote.

“We have in suspense thousands of people in Kansas that are citizens, in some cases, even born here, left, came back, and they’re going through all kinds of paperwork and stuff and they cannot vote,” said Sharon Ailslieger, co-president of the League of Women Voters. “And until that happens to you, you may say, ‘So what? Big deal.’ Let it happen to you; we’ll see how you like it.”

She said the restrictions have made voters angry and made the league, which works to register voters, angry as well.

“We would like very much for some of these barriers to come down. You passed the laws. Now you can un-pass them.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Uninsured college student’s story elicits tears, sympathy at legislative forum."