Kansans crowd a Medicaid expansion rally on March 15, 2023, at the Statehouse. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
By David Jordan, special to the Kansas Reflector
Voters in November sent a clear message that they were dissatisfied with the status quo and the high cost of goods and services.
The rising cost of health care was one of the top pocketbook issues voters cared about — second only to food, according to a recent column by KFF, an independent source of health policy, polling and journalism.
This concern matched polling the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund supported last year, which found that 70% of voters felt the average Kansas family was struggling financially. The majority of those polled believed these essential costs were difficult to afford: housing (87%), health care (86%), child care (83%) and healthy food (81%).
To ease the financial strain, families are being forced to make tradeoffs and tough decisions, especially to afford health care. They’re having to make late payments or eliminate activities that bring them joy to afford high medical bills.
Families want action to bring down costs. But instead of focusing on reducing health care costs, policymakers in Kansas and Washington, D.C., are pushing partisan agendas.
The Kansas research found that 79% of people believe most state policymakers are not in touch with the financial challenges the average family is facing. This year, Kansas legislators have taken no action to bring down costs for families.
At the federal level, the same dynamic is playing out with Congress. None of their top health care priorities will lower costs for families. Instead of looking for ways to reduce health care costs, they’re considering cuts that would take health care away from Kansas families and make care more expensive.
To pay for a $4 trillion tax cut for corporations and billionaires, Congress is prioritizing cutting more than $2.3 trillion from the Medicaid health insurance program. Medicaid is an important source of health coverage for tens of millions of Americans, especially those in rural communities. The program covers more than 70 million individuals, or roughly 1 in 5 children and adults nationwide, and more than 425,000 children and adults in Kansas.
Medicaid serves as the backbone of our health care system, covering 40% of births, paying for the majority of nursing home residents, covering people with disabilities, and protecting workers who cannot receive insurance through their employer or afford a private plan.
Medicaid is the largest source of federal funds for our state budget. When Congress proposed cutting Medicaid funding in 2017, Kansas was projected to lose $917 million over 10 years, which would have crippled the state budget, forced cuts to Medicaid coverage for Kansans and payments to providers.
Make no mistake, Kansans would lose health coverage and access to care as a result of these cuts. Higher rates of uninsured Kansans means more costly emergency room bills, greater medical debt, and more unpaid bills to hospitals and doctors.
Those uncompensated costs would have to be absorbed locally by providers and taxpayers. This means we all — individuals, families and businesses — would pay more for health care.
This is significant, as Kansas already has the most hospitals at risk of closing compared to any other state in the country. High rates of uncompensated care would put even more financial pressure on our already vulnerable hospitals.
Hospitals are not the only facilities at risk of closing if Congress cuts Medicaid funding. Nursing homes and long-term care providers would be crushed too.
Medicaid is the primary payer for nursing home care. In Kansas, Medicaid covers four in seven nursing home residents and provides much-needed long-term care services that Medicare doesn’t cover. Without Medicaid covering these services, that necessary care would be unaffordable for seniors and could create a care burden for their families.
Kansas cannot afford Congress cutting Medicaid. Our residents, hospitals and long-term care facilities will suffer.
Instead of cutting Medicaid funding, Congress and our state policymakers should focus on policies that would bring down health care costs and reduce the financial pressures facing so many hardworking families. Congress could continue to support the Affordable Care Act subsidies that make insurance more affordable, expand Medicare’s ability to negotiate with drug companies, or reduce administrative burdens that make it costlier and more difficult for patients to access care.
What’s more, the Kansas Legislature should expand Medicaid to reduce costs, improve health and protect Kansans from medical debt.
There are many ways our elected officials could support policies that would benefit families and alleviate the financial burden of rising health care costs.
It’s what voters want.
David Jordan is the president of the Hutchinson-based United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.
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