Medicaid
Brownback signs controversial health care compact bill
By Dave Ranney — KHI News Service TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback has signed into law a bill that might make it possible for Kansas to join a compact of states that want the power to run Medicare and Medicaid within their borders. The new law also creates the possibility that the compact states could circumvent…
Closing of clinic elicits rainbow of emotions
The pale white walls and beige cloth desk chair pretty much sum up the decor of the medical director’s office at the Shared Care Free Clinic of Jackson County in Independence. Yet just inside the doorway, underneath a seat for visitors, sit two bundles of fluorescently colored socks. The director, Dr. Bridget McCandless, keeps the…
Moveon.Org poll shows most Kansans support Medicaid expansion
But Brownback campaign skeptical of the results By Jim McLean KHI News Service April 8, 2014 TOPEKA — Poll results released today indicate that the Medicaid expansion issue could be a factor in the Kansas governor’s race. The poll, conducted last week for MoveOn.org Political Action, a left-leaning group dedicated to “progressive change,” showed that 52 percent…
Medicaid expansion advocates rally at Statehouse
By Jim McLean KHI News Service TOPEKA — Medicaid expansion is nowhere to be found on Gov. Sam Brownback’s list of priorities and those of Republican legislative leaders as they work through a legislative session now dominated by school finance issues. But that didn’t stop nearly 200 expansion supporters from crowding into a wing of the Statehouse…
Missouri politicians hopeful of Medicaid expansion compromise
Mike Sherry – The Hale Center for Journalism Missouri policy makers might be inching toward middle ground that would expand Medicaid eligibility while reforming the safety-net program to encourage recipients to work, two key participants in the talks said Monday. The comments came from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, and state Rep. Noel Torpey,…
Consumers, advocates rushing toward health-reform deadline
Mike Sherry – The Hale Center for Journalism As an uninsured agriculture worker, Salvador Lopez said he’d welcome health coverage so he could afford diabetes medication. Health insurance would also help his wife, said the Excelsior Springs, Mo., resident. Not feeling well on Saturday, she actually had her blood pressure checked at the health fair…
Health law helps thousands of area Latinos, feds say
Approximately 95,000 uninsured Latinos in Missouri and Kansas combined are eligible for health coverage through the marketplaces established by the federal health reform law, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The department broke out state-specific numbers in the report, which concluded that approximately 8 in 10 of…
KC Health Department boosting efforts in the Northland
The city of Kansas City, Mo., Health Department has taken an initial step in its effort to improve service north of the river, and city officials said the move could be a precursor to a combined health and transit hub at one of the Northland’s busiest intersections. In mid-January, according to Deputy Director Bert Malone,…
Sebelius pushes health exchanges
Alex Smith — KCUR Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged the uninsured to enroll in the federal health exchange at a press conference in Kansas City, Mo., Monday morning. At the Full Employment Council near 18th and Vine, Sebelius touted the benefits of the health exchange for both the uninsured and for the…
Local efforts aim to curb Medicare costs
Mike Sherry – The Hale Center for Journalism Established five decades ago, the Medicare program has a budget rivalling that of the Pentagon, and congressional budgeters project the roughly $600 billion price tag will double within the next decade. But three Kansas City-area physician partnerships, serving both sides of the state line, are on…