Farm Bureau health plan is a wolf in sheep’s clothing

I grew up on a farm and saw my dad work from before dawn to after dusk. The work ethic I learned from my parents took me from a small town of 800 people through 14 years of medical training to saving lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Kansas City. While I’ve left the farm, that is where my roots remain, and I’ll always be just a small-town girl. As a pediatrician, I want to advocate for other farming families like mine.

That is why I am distraught at the prospect of Kansas Senate Bill 32 and other bills that pose a real threat to the health, both physical and financial, of Kansas farmers and their families.

Senate Bill 32 is not an insurance plan, although it is disguised to meet that need. In reality, they are unregulated “health care plans”, which means the Department of Insurance will have no power to protect Kansas families from harmful practices or to help customers with complaints or issues.

What’s more, these plans often exclude patients with pre-existing conditions, such as my dad’s skin cancer (likely from all the hot summer days on the Allis Chalmers tractor without a cab). Maternity care could also be considered a “pre-existing” condition and maternity and newborn care could be excluded (so my mom wouldn’t have been covered when pregnant with me or my siblings).

Also, these plans are not required to cover essential health benefits, such as outpatient and emergency services, prescription drugs, preventive care services, hospitalization , maternity and newborn care, and chronic disease management.

We know access to quality prenatal care results in healthier moms and babies. Ample evidence also shows that when parents have health care coverage their children are more likely to have coverage as well. Put simply, ensuring adequate health care coverage for farmers and farm workers means more farm kids, like I was myself, will be covered.

When catastrophic injury or illness occurs — as it did when my grandfather lost his right forearm in a corn picker accident — these patients will not have sufficient health coverage. The Farm Bureau product creates a false sense of security; patients have coverage when they are healthy, but not if they are in need of critical care. If this is the case, a serious illness or accident could lead to medical bankruptcy. If my dad had one of these “health plans,” it wouldn’t have covered his treatment during the 18 months he fought colon cancer.

Of the approximately 27,000 Kansas farmers and farm workers, 12 percent are uninsured. The vast majority, 79 percent, of farmers and farm workers who lack health care coverage have incomes below 400 percent of the federal poverty level, which is the threshold for federal subsidies that help pay for premiums in the individual health insurance market. These uninsured, hard-working Kansans may already be eligible for subsidies to help them purchase insurance that includes much needed benefits and consumer protections.

With their exclusions, the Farm Bureau product would cherry-pick healthy Kansans, driving up costs and destabilizing the insurance market for other Kansans who seek real, comprehensive coverage.

While they may appear less expensive at first glance, these skimpy plans are not the right prescription for our state. These plans will leave Kansas farmers and families unprotected and uncovered when they need help the most. I urge our state leaders to reject Senate Bill 32 and pass policies that ensure all Kansans and their families have the quality, comprehensive health care coverage they deserve.

This story was originally published March 20, 2019 at 2:04 PM.