News & Issues
Stories from around the Kansas City Metro area on a variety of topics.
Savings accounts for children with disabilities could be impacted by Kansas budget struggles
A Kansas House committee unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to allow for tax-free savings accounts for children with disabilities. But even as they sent the bill to the full House, committee members expressed concerns that cost could keep it from coming up for a vote there.
Here’s what Brownback’s budget plan could do to the Kansas safety net
Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for plugging a $325 million-plus hole in the current fiscal year’s budget includes a $254,000 cut in state-funded grants for safety net clinics that provide care for the poor and uninsured.
St. Luke’s and Liberty hospitals join forces on cancer care
Saint Luke’s and Liberty hospitals on Monday announced an agreement to partner on the provision of cancer care.
President Obama proposes boost in funding to fight superbugs
In the budget President Obama is sending to Congress he’s asking for more than $1 billion to combat antibiotic resistance, and some of that money would focus on animal agriculture. Antibiotic resistance can make common medications ineffective, meaning sick people don’t get better and doctors have fewer options to treat bacterial infections.
Olathe Medical Center Unveils $100 Million Expansion Project
Olathe Medical Center on Friday announced the largest expansion in the hospital’s six-decade history, a cradle-to-grave project that calls for new buildings for obstetrics and for patients with dementia.
New KS education commissioner tours state for talkback sessions
Randy Watson, the incoming Kansas Commissioner of Education, is starting work even before he officially takes office in July. Watson is touring the state of Kansas to speak with parents, students, educators, legislators and business leaders about education in the state. The series of town hall–style meetings, dubbed “Kansas Children, Kansas’ Future,” will stop in…
How big of a problem do you think concussions are in football?
For football fans everywhere, the NFL’s concussion crisis has raised some uncomfortable questions about what it means to love a sport that’s been shown to cause lasting harm to its players. The league’s ratings continue to enjoy near-record highs, yet at the same time, scientific research increasingly suggests that football can lead to a wide…
Yoder, Advocates Push For Savings Accounts For Kansas Children With Disabilities
On a day when Congressman Kevin Yoder testified before a Kansas House committee, it was a 15-year-old Olathe South High School freshman who stole the show. Rachel Mast, who has Down syndrome, ebulliently encouraged the Children and Seniors Committee to approve a bill to allow tax-exempt savings accounts for Kansas children with disabilities that would not jeopardize their Medicaid benefits.
Kansas mental health providers wary of effort to regulate drug use
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is attempting to head off opposition to a bill being crafted to allow the state to regulate the use of prescription mental health drugs.
Surgeon General Visits Kansas City, Addresses Immunization, Violence
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was in town Thursday as part of a “listening tour,” meeting with community leaders, physicians and others to discuss public health concerns. Among the topics they addressed were childhood obesity, violence, prescription drug abuse and access to health care. Murthy, a Harvard-trained physician, was confirmed as the nation’s top public…