Davis Merritt: To ‘Al,’ Kansas ‘forgot where it came from’

Al, we’ll call him, a lifelong Kansan near full retirement and Medicare eligibility, is thinking hard about leaving because Kansas “forgot where it came from.”

His insistence that his real name not be in the newspaper says a good deal about what he means by that and what he fears about the future. We’ve exchanged several e-mails about the implications of the multistate health care compact passed by the 2014 Legislature.

“I have lived in the state all my life,” he wrote. “But I cannot recall any other time when elected leadership has assumed a public mandate to sacrifice the less fortunate (in order to) achieve some vague greater fiscal goal.”

Whether driven by heartfelt, if mistaken, ideology or mere indifference, the current state government’s refusal to increase Medicaid, failure to fund public schools appropriately, obvious ambition to control Medicare spending, and tax-cut-driven cutbacks have Al and his soon-to-retire wife looking through magazines about senior living in other states. That’s not their preference, but they feel pushed in that direction. Sometimes, he worries, making other states more attractive to retirees is a de facto “self-deportation” policy.

This is his story in his words. It is not an extraordinary story; in fact, its distressing commonality is what makes it important.

“My father was in retailing most of his life,” Al said. “His most profound advice to me was never discuss politics or religion. And so I remain a closet theologian and ‘bleeding heart’ Democrat, but those in business know me as tighter than bark on a tree.

“I keep a low profile in Wichita … and while I have not changed, the state of Kansas has changed, or at least forgot where it came from.”

The recent “fragmentation of all things cultural” means people “never need encounter the other side, or reality,” he said.

Al worked his way through college on a third-shift manufacturing job, married a Wichitan, spent about 30 years traveling in a couple of different sales and marketing jobs, then a few years in retail sales.

“What I have caught in conversations with 60-somethings regarding retirement plans is the notion of self-deporting to (a) more senior-friendly state,” he said. “Reaching the Medicare age of 65 and enjoying peace of mind is a significant part of every retiree’s goal. It’s right up there with Social Security, 401(k)s, and where are the grandchildren going to be raised.

“If nursing home costs (and numbers) continue to rise, then it behooves Kansas to either … prepare for the expansion of … Medicaid or take measures to mitigate the population of potential Medicaid users. The underfunded or unprepared elderly, after all, will be just ‘users.’ I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory. But soon-to-be-retirees are factoring in whether or not Kansas, with inevitably rising property taxes to cover the local community quality-of-life revenue shortfalls and (possible) takeover of Medicare, is the place to stay and enjoy retirement.

“I have lived in this state all my life. But I cannot recall any other time where elected leadership has assumed a public mandate to sacrifice the less fortunate (in order to) achieve some vague greater fiscal goal. What has happened to our connection to the rest of Kansas, the ones without voices? And who will be my Kansas spokesperson in 10 or 20 years when I am elderly or down-and-out, the victim of another great recession?

“Time to self-deport?”

Say it ain’t so, Al.

This story was originally published October 6, 2014 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Davis Merritt: To ‘Al,’ Kansas ‘forgot where it came from’."