Letters on Christian in name only, Medicaid expansion, Medicare ‘doc fix’

Country is Christian in name only

I am not a Christian. I am an atheist. But I am told I live in a Christian country. I do not believe it.

Jesus taught humility, kindness and concern for the poor. He sought to serve all humanity, but he had special concern for the powerless – the children and the poor.

He did not seek wealth, nor did he idolize the rich.

But our country and our state do.

Kansas, with its “Christian” governor, believes in unlimited wealth, and believes this wealth will trickle down to the poor. We believe this so strongly that we are taking from the poor and giving to the rich. We have reduced welfare, refused health care for the poor, and attacked and undercut the public educational system.

I suggest that our country and our state are not Christian. They are ChINO, or Christian in name only.

Grateful for vote

Nearly every member of Kansas’ congressional delegation recently cast a vote for House Resolution 2, legislation that restructured how physicians are paid under Medicare. Without that legislation, Medicare payments for physician services would have been cut by 21 percent, which likely would have made it very difficult for many physicians to continue to care for the same number of Medicare patients.

The bill ends a cycle of 17 consecutive short-term “patches” that Congress has had to enact over more than a decade to avoid the major disruption of a significant payment cut to medical practices.

There was broad, bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives for this legislation, which directly affects the 450,000 Kansans who depend on Medicare. The physicians of Kansas are deeply grateful to Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts and to Reps. Lynn Jenkins of Topeka, Mike Pompeo of Wichita and Kevin Yoder of Overland Park for their support of this important legislation.

Expand Medicaid

Gov. Sam Brownback’s impractical experiment with cutting taxes for the rich and refusing to accept federal incentives for the Medicaid expansion has left Kansans in a deep hole.

A very resourceful friend of mine diagnosed Brownback as “arrogant” because of his devout commitment in refusing the Medicaid expansion funds. But I perceive Brownback as being unapologetically clouded by Republican ideas. The solution to any given problem must be tailored to that problem, and the governor must desist from using mainly Republican ideas in every situation.

Brownback must now act in concert with the needs of the people and accept the funds for the Medicaid expansion.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on Christian in name only, Medicaid expansion, Medicare ‘doc fix’."