Gerard S. Brungardt: Expanding KanCare about more than medicine

Many patients I have cared for at Guadalupe Clinic, one of the clinics in the community that serves the working poor who are medically underserved, are precisely those who would benefit from KanCare expansion.

Imagine one I’ll call “Maria,” a composite case drawn from more than 25 years of clinical experience caring for patients at the clinic: Maria is a 53-year-old woman who works two part-time jobs and is a key caregiver for her extended family. She has diabetes, hypertension and recurrent pain and bleeding from her uterus. Most months she cannot afford her medicines. She is beginning to have eye problems and nerve problems because of her diabetes. She is at increasing risk of suffering a stroke because of her high blood pressure. She often needs to go to the emergency room with severe bleeding from her uterus; she is stabilized and discharged, and told she needs to have a hysterectomy.

With access to KanCare, Maria would be able to have a regular doctor she could call with questions and concerns, one who would care for her diabetes and hypertension. She would be able to get her medicines on a regular basis and get the surgery she needs. Most important, she would feel like a member of the community – someone who counts, someone her community recognizes as important enough to provide with the basic need of health insurance.

The example of Maria highlights the key reasons we should expand KanCare to include those who currently do not have a “ticket” to the health care system – to confirm for people their dignity, to provide an ongoing relationship with a physician, and to give access to otherwise prohibitively expensive tests, medicines and procedures.

Pope Francis has untiringly reminded us of the dignity we all carry within ourselves in communion with those around us. When we isolate someone from our community, that person experiences a poverty more profound than material possessions. They experience the poverty of being denied their innate human dignity, of not being recognized as someone who counts, of not being treated precisely as a someone.

We all know the importance of having a primary care doctor to care for us. This is being expressed in the current move to patient-centered medical homes. A primary care doctor can provide the support and counsel needed to work through difficulties and catch things early – before a problem becomes a major complication or hospitalization. Kansans like Maria need primary care doctors they can call on in times of need.

Most of us have experienced the growing cost of modern-day health care. Even many with good health insurance have difficulty getting all the bills paid. How much more so for those in need of KanCare expansion? Access to the needed tests, medicines and procedures will allow them to better care for themselves and their families.

This all says more about ourselves than we may care to admit. Recall that Jesus rejected the lawyer’s question: “Who is our neighbor?” Jesus did not give a description of those who are our neighbors. Rather, in Luke 10:36, he turned the question around, asking: “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The real question is: Whom do I recognize as a person? As one deserving my love? To whom do I prove myself neighbor?

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Gerard S. Brungardt: Expanding KanCare about more than medicine."