Statement of David Jordan, President and CEO of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, on Governor Kelly’s 2024 Medicaid Expansion Proposal:
Expanding Medicaid will bring down health care costs for all Kansans. Most importantly, it will provide health coverage to 150,000 Kansans who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little get subsidized coverage on the health care marketplace. Expanding Medicaid will protect Kansas hospitals, create jobs, and strengthen our communities. We applaud Governor Kelly for her continued commitment and tireless work to expand Medicaid. Failure to expand Medicaid has resulted in Kansas losing nearly $7 billion. It’s time to expand Medicaid. As Governor Kelly’s “Healthy Workers, Healthy Economy” tour highlighted, with the critical need for Medicaid expansion in every corner of the state, we can’t afford to wait another year.
While we share the Governor’s support for Medicaid expansion and support the bipartisan effort to ensure that 2024 is the year for Kansas to expand Medicaid, we oppose the proposed work requirements included in the plan. Implementing work requirements creates barriers to coverage and hoops for Kansans to jump through to get health coverage they qualify for as part of expansion. No Kansan should need to jump through unnecessary hoops to access health care. We should be breaking down barriers to care instead of implementing policies that result in the loss of health coverage.”
Tag: KanCare
Statement on 2024 KanCare Expansion Proposal
Postpartum coverage extension is great news for Kansas families
Through its new budget, Kansas is taking an important step in improving maternal and infant health outcomes. Today, Governor Laura Kelly signed the new budget bill which contains funding for extending postpartum KanCare (Medicaid) coverage from 60 days to 12 months.
More than 30% of Kansas births are covered by KanCare. Extending postpartum coverage will allow mothers to access early interventions and coordinated care, preventing postpartum complications that arise more than 60 days after delivery. Now more mothers will have health insurance and access to care in the first full year postpartum when the mother is still at risk for complications, including pregnancy-related death.
In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, a temporary federal expansion of postpartum benefits to 12 months has allowed mothers to access or continue accessing health care and mental health services that provide both mother and child with a healthier start to life. A significant aspect of these improved health outcomes results from mothers being able to access early interventions and coordinated care, preventing postpartum complications that arise more than 60 days after delivery and keeping chronic conditions from worsening due to early identification and intervention.
Last year, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (Health Fund) and 28 partners urged the Kansas Legislature to permanently extend postpartum coverage.
“We commend Governor Kelly and the Kansas Legislature for extending postpartum KanCare coverage to 12 months,” said David Jordan, president and CEO of the Health Fund. “This will positively impact 9,000 Kansas mothers each year—reducing maternal mortality, improving health outcomes, and reducing disparities.”
Extended postpartum KanCare is an important step toward improved health for mothers. We need to remain attentive to and advocate for mothers’ access to quality physical and mental health care in all Kansas communities.
Related Materials
Expanding KanCare would strengthen rural health care, rural communities
This commentary by Health Fund President David Jordan on strengthening rural health care through KanCare expansion originally appeared in the Wichita Eagle on March 9, 2022.
Kansas is a rural state with nearly one-third of the population living in rural communities. As Kansans we take pride in self-reliance and taking care of our own.
Yet Kansans living in rural and frontier areas are more likely to be uninsured than those in more populated communities. Kansans living in frontier communities have the highest uninsured rate in the state (12.9%). When it comes to health care and sustaining rural health systems and communities, we need more than self-reliance. We need health insurance.
Many of our uninsured neighbors are hardworking Kansans who earn too much to qualify for KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program, and too little to qualify for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. In fact, a single parent of two kids earning more than $4.00 an hour earns too much to qualify for KanCare.
These hardworking Kansans are our neighbors. Kansans like Jim, an uninsured farmer who enjoys working with crops and large machinery. He lost his health insurance after a seasonal job ended. Getting insurance now is beyond his means.
He’s dealing with diabetes and an injured foot. The bones were broken, but Jim hasn’t been able to get it addressed. He calls it a “Catch-22.” He was hurt and needs money to get well, but he can’t work to make money because of the injury.
Without health insurance, Jim is scraping by and going without regular care.
Emergency room care is often the only option for uninsured Kansans like Jim. But hospital bottom lines and viability are threatened if uninsured patients can’t pay bills. Currently, 70 rural Kansas hospitals are financially vulnerable and categorized as at-risk of closing, more than in any other state.
Rural and frontier towns rely on hospitals for health care and to anchor communities.
According to the Kansas Hospital Association, in 2020, 12% of Kansas employment was in the health services sector. The health care sector was the fifth largest producer of total income and of total sales.
For health and prosperity, a sustainable health system is crucial to the future of our rural regions and our rural way of life.
Kansas can take an immediate step to strengthen rural health systems and communities by expanding KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program.
Multiple studies show that hospitals, particularly rural ones, are at significantly higher risk of closure in states that have not expanded Medicaid. A 2018 study published in Health Affairs found “Medicaid expansion was associated with improved hospital financial performance and substantially lower likelihoods of closure, especially in rural markets and counties with large numbers of uninsured adults before Medicaid expansion.”
Expanding KanCare would cut our uninsured rate in half. Expansion would boost hospital finances by covering 25% of the uncompensated care in rural hospitals and 44% in frontier hospitals.
Kansans know expanding KanCare is the right thing to do. Expansion has broad support across geography and political party. A new survey finds almost 8 in 10 Kansas voters (78%) support expanding KanCare.
All neighboring states have expanded their Medicaid programs. Expanding KanCare would keep us competitive — adding nearly 23,000 new jobs to the state’s economy and increasing economic output by $17 billion.
Expanding KanCare would strengthen rural health care and help ensure rural Kansans get the health care they need while improving their economies. The time to expand is now.
In Support of Postpartum Coverage
We support and invest in early childhood initiatives because research shows investing early creates the best health outcomes and the greatest return on investment. To ensure the healthiest start for Kansas kids, we also support policies that lead to healthier parents and healthier families.
Health Fund President David Jordan recently submitted testimony to both the Kansas House and Kansas Senate in support of extending postpartum KanCare coverage to 12 months, universal home visiting, and adding adult dental coverage to Medicaid benefits.
Medicaid expansion would help all Kansans
The following is an opinion piece by Health Fund President David Jordan.
Eight years of inaction by policymakers have resulted in Kansans paying more for health care, our communities’ ability to deliver health care being pushed to the brink, and billions of dollars in lost economic opportunity.
Today, the Kansas legislature begins its annual legislative session, providing yet another opportunity to expand KanCare, Kansas’ Medicaid program. Kansas is one of only 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid, to the detriment of the 165,000 hardworking Kansans who fall in the coverage gap.
Who’s in the coverage gap?
A Kansas family of three with an annual income of $8,345 makes too much to be covered by KanCare, and too little to receive Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace subsidies. In this case, a single mother with two kids who works a minimum wage job 23 hours per week falls into the coverage gap – earning too much to qualify for KanCare and too little to qualify for health coverage through the ACA.
According to the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, more than two-thirds of adults eligible for insurance through Medicaid expansion work or are in working families, and most are employed in industries less likely to offer affordable health insurance, such as service, construction, and retail.
At a time when all Kansans are experiencing the pinch of increased costs to provide for our families, health care is no exception. Expanding KanCare would not just benefit those in the coverage gap, it would also help bring down the costs of health care for Kansans and reduce costs for businesses.
As policymakers return to Topeka, it is important to remind them that expanding KanCare is a budget-neutral Kansas-specific policy that would help 165,000 hardworking Kansans who fall in the coverage gap access health care and reduce their risk of medical debt and bankruptcy.
Beyond improving health and economic security, expanding KanCare would add nearly 23,000 good-paying jobs to our state, increasing our economic output over the next three years by $17 billion and the personal income of Kansans by $6.3 billion. Expansion would also help protect access to care for our rural neighbors; 76 hospitals in Kansas are currently at risk of closing. Expanding KanCare would help rural Kansans access the care they need while boosting their local economies.
Join the conversation
To learn more about the state of KanCare and its potential expansion, you can attend a virtual lunch on January 13 with key leaders within the health sector to discuss the path forward for Medicaid expansion in Kansas.
Kansas Lt. Gov. David Toland, who also serves as the Kansas State Secretary of Commerce, will provide an update on the Governor’s plans around KanCare expansion and will share current data on the economic impact expansion will have in Kansas.
Sen. Doll, a Republican legislator from Garden City and longtime advocate of KanCare expansion, will discuss the path forward for expansion through the legislative process and how health leaders can help leverage their voices and positions to support this work.
Expanding KanCare is critically important to improving health, reducing costs for Kansas families, and creating jobs. To achieve this goal, we all need to engage in the discussion and let our policymakers know that we can’t afford to wait another year to expand KanCare.
Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage in Kansas will improve health of mother and infant
This opinion piece by Health Fund President and CEO David Jordan and Topeka Public Schools Superintendent Tiffany Anderson originally appeared in the The Topeka Capital-Journal on December 21, 2021.
Kansas can improve future health outcomes for families by extending health care for new mothers and infants.
Unfortunately, significant racial disparities exist in maternal and child health. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, national pregnancy-related mortality rates among Black and American Indian and Alaska Native women are more than three and two times higher, respectively, compared to the rate for White women.
In Kansas, non-white minority women are nearly twice as likely to die within a year of pregnancy as non-Hispanic white women.
To ensure mothers and babies have a healthy start to life and to reduce these inequities, we must ensure all mothers have health coverage for the first year of their child’s life.
In 2018, KanCare covered 39% of Kansas births. Before the COVID-19 public health emergency, each year over 9,000 mothers lost KanCare coverage 60 days postpartum.
Extending postpartum KanCare coverage to 12 months can save lives, improve health outcomes, prevent interaction with the child welfare system, reduce disparities and save the state money.
Recent federal policy change creates the opening for Kansas to extend postpartum coverage. Other states like Indiana and Tennessee are taking advantage of this opportunity.
A 2021 report released by the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity & Justice detailed 13 recommendations for improving maternal and child health, including extending maternal Medicaid coverage to 12 months postpartum. The report recognized the important role of improving access to care in reducing health disparities.
Extending coverage can save lives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported 66% of all pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. The Kansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee found that between 2016 and 2018 nearly one-quarter of Kansas pregnancy-related deaths occurred between 43 days and one year postpartum. Nearly half of all pregnancy-associated deaths occurred in the same period.
A child’s health is tied closely to their parent’s health and access to health care. Parental enrollment in Medicaid is associated with a 29% higher probability that a child will receive an annual well-child visit.
Postpartum care provides mental health services as women gain services for clinical depression. Nearly 20% of Kansas women below 200% of the federal poverty level experienced postpartum depression in the year after giving birth.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, between fiscal years 2012 and 2017, parental substance use was the primary reason 70% of children under the age of one entered foster care. Extending postpartum coverage would enable mothers to access substance use services that could prevent interaction with the child welfare system.
Extended postpartum coverage is predicted to lead to a decrease in long-term Medicaid costs through the provision of early medical interventions and coordinated care, preventing postpartum complications and worsening chronic conditions resulting from delays in early identification and intervention.
Due to the public health emergency, Kansas cannot discontinue postpartum coverage after 60 days. This temporary policy change has enabled mothers to access critical health care and mental health services.
With new mothers experiencing isolation and mental health challenges due to the public health crisis, it’s critical to extend coverage to maintain postpartum checkups and treatment of chronic health conditions to prevent future adverse health outcomes.
The public health emergency is set to end this spring. The time to act is now, or each year 9,000 new Kansas mothers will lose KanCare coverage to the detriment of their health, their children’s health and long-term family stability.
Let’s create better outcomes for Kansas families by permanently extending postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months.
Tiffany Anderson is the superintendent of Topeka Public Schools and co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice. David Jordan is the president and CEO of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and a member of the commission.