Thompson praises Mayflower Clinic, pans Brownback Medicaid veto vote

James Thompson, the Fourth District Democratic congressional candidate, visited a charity clinic run by volunteer physicians and nurses on Monday and criticized the state Legislature for upholding Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill to expand Medicaid.

“This clinic serves about 1,000 people a year, all pro bono,” Thompson said after touring the Mayflower Clinic in downtown Wichita. “If we had 150 of these around here, we maybe could make up for the health care we just lost by not expanding Medicaid.”

The state Legislature voted last month to expand Medicaid for potentially tens of thousands of uninsured Kansans but fell short Monday of the two-thirds majority needed to override Brownback’s veto of the bill.

Mayflower Clinic board member Abdul Arif said Republican candidate Ron Estes has also been invited to visit the clinic.

Thompson, Estes and Libertarian Chris Rockhold are seeking the 4th District seat in a special election April 11.

Thompson praised Mayflower for its efforts to extend care to working poor people who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to get subsidized insurance through the Affordable Care Act health exchange.

He said if he’s elected to Congress, he’ll try to find funding for clinics like Mayflower, which are outside the Medicaid system.

Estes could not be reached for comment Monday but has also expressed support for some federal funding of charity clinics as a means of providing medical care to the poor. Estes is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act.

Arif said the Mayflower Clinic has not attempted to qualify for Medicaid reimbursement because that would bring on a huge paperwork burden and require the clinic to pay the providers. The clinic is staffed nearly 100 percent with volunteer hours donated by physicians and nurses from Wichita’s immigrant community.

“We prefer to be what we are, a weekend clinic of volunteers,” he said.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Thompson praises Mayflower Clinic, pans Brownback Medicaid veto vote."