Today, we’re publishing candidates’ responses to the following question:
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Kansas is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid in the more than a decade since the Affordable Care Act took effect, and it has remained one of our readers’ top issues every election cycle since. Projections suggest expanding Medicaid would allow roughly 150,000 Kansans who can’t currently afford health coverage to be insured. Do you support expanding Medicaid in Kansas? Why or why not?
Below are the answers the Post received from candidates on the issue:
District 10
Andrew Mall (Democratic)
All Kansans should have access to affordable and quality healthcare. As a small business owner and independent contractor, I know how hard it is to find access to affordable healthcare. Just a few years ago, my family was paying over $1800 a month for family coverage and that included a $14,000 family out-of pocket deductible. One health scare could bankrupt a family with those high costs.
That is why, as the recent President of the Kansas Association of Realtors, I worked hard to provide affordable healthcare access to our 10,000 plus members here in Kansas. In the Senate, I will work just as hard with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass Medicaid Expansion which will expand healthcare to 150,000 Kansans, create more than 20,000 new jobs and prevent 59 rural hospitals from closing.
Mike Thompson (Republican, incumbent)
I favor improving Medicaid to those who are currently on the program, who it was designed to help – the truly vulnerable among us. That’s why I supported legislation to shorten the wait lists and increase reimbursement rates to providers. With 7,000 physically and intellectually disabled Kansans on those waiting lists, that was a prudent thing to do, as having a societal safety net for those individuals is critical, as they are unable to help themselves.
It’s for those same reasons that transforming Medicaid into a welfare program for able-bodied adults – which my opponent supports – is a really bad idea. It would crowd out the folks I just mentioned, who are already having trouble getting services as it is now. Able-bodied adults can currently get health coverage for free or very inexpensively via the ObamaCare exchange due to subsidies or by obtaining employment where health insurance is provided.
If we go the route my opponent supports and allow able-bodied adults to get Medicaid, that person would NOTt be eligible for those subsidies and therefore, a private plan via ObamaCare would not be affordable for them, which would essentially mean kicking them off private insurance and onto the government dole. That’s the exact opposite of what we should do. We’ve balanced the budget with record surpluses every year I’ve been in Topeka, and we did so by being fiscally responsible.
This is why I favor helping those on the program now and getting them the services they need, rather than turning into something that it wasn’t intended for.
