The Kansas Republican led legislature has been sure of several things, including the rejection of Medicaid expansion. The legislators were so sure of this that when confronted with even the possibility of a Democratic governor last year moved to change the guidelines for acceptance of Medicaid expansion, making sure only the legislature could make that decision.
Now, Kansas hospitals are feeling the pain. The recent announced closure of the Independence, Kansas hospital marked a first in 8 years for Kansas, but new and troubling signs tell us the run on hospitals may not be over.
Via Christi, speaking from their Wichita-based hospital facility made it clear to the Wichita Eagle yesterday: because of failure to expand Medicaid, Via Christi is hurting.
http://www.kansas.com/...
Via Christi said it is losing nearly $14 million a year as a result of the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid.
The hospital is joining with other medical groups in an effort to push the state to expand eligibility for the federal and state insurance program for people with low incomes or who are disabled.
Despite pleas from the Kansas Hospital Association, and the loss of a hospital, the Brownback administration and Republicans in the state house have found an old, familiar enemy, blaming President Obama for the closure of the hospital. When asked by Bryan Lowry & Dion Lefler at the Wichita Eagle, Governor Brownback talked about the Independence hospital closure directly:
http://www.kansas.com/...
Brownback disputed that the hospital closure was prompted by the state’s inaction on Medicaid, pointing instead to the Affordable Care Act.
“They should blame it on Obamacare. That took a bunch of money out of Medicare, which our hospitals here are far more dependent on Medicare than they are on Medicaid,” Brownback said.
House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, on the other hand, has taken a hard stance against it.
“The real issue here isn’t Medicaid expansion; the real issue is Obamacare and the disastrous effects it’s having on this country,” Merrick said in an e-mail Friday. “I stand with the majority of Kansans who oppose expanding that disaster in Kansas.”
For representatives closest to where a closure has happened though, the "disaster" as house speaker Merrick refers to it is already happening when a hospital closes or warns they may be facing steep reduction in services. Some Republican groups question how long the tactic of blaming the other guy can go; especially considering then person they continue to attack will leave office next cycle, but medicaid expansion and ACA is very unlikely to change.
During the record setting budget session of 2015, Jeff King, Senator from Independence, noted: "People want solutions, not blaming the other guy." He was referring to Democrats refusing to vote for the regressive tax policy put forward. Now, however, Kansas Republicans are doing exactly what he scolded against -- blaming the other guy while offering no solutions.
With 190 jobs directly lost in his home town, and thousands impacted by the closure of a hospital, blaming the other guy may not be enough.
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