Health care compact about privatizing Medicare

Some GOP state lawmakers are trying to downplay and dismiss concerns about the health care compact they approved last session that would allow the state, subject to congressional approval, to opt out of all federal laws regarding health care, including Medicare. They even tried to bully volunteers with the Johnson County Commission on Aging into not publishing a newsletter article critical of the compact. But Larry Weigel of Manhattan, who provides Medicare advice to seniors, said at a forum last week in Johnson County that seniors should be very concerned. He said that privatizing Medicare is very much a goal of the out-of-state groups pushing the compact. “This is the hidden agenda,” he said. “This is the part that’s not getting out to the public.” Meanwhile, the Kansas Legislative Research Department has begun doing research on the aging agencies in Kansas at a legislator’s request, the Kansas Health Institute News Service reported. Is this the retaliation that some lawmakers threatened? – Phillip Brownlee

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Health care compact about privatizing Medicare."