As the Republican-controlled Congress focuses on possible cuts to Medicaid, Johnson County residents and health care providers across Kansas worry about how deep such cuts may go.
Earlier this month, the GOP-led House of Representatives and Senate each passed budget blueprints that outline trillions of dollars in cuts to federal programs to trim the federal deficit and pay for trillions of dollars in proposed tax cuts.
Included in those plans are calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to find $880 billion in savings over the next 10 years. The committee is planning a May 7 meeting to finalize and advance that portion of the bill.
While no programs are specified in the blueprint, many Republicans have openly talked of needing to slash Medicaid spending, and Johnson County health advocates worry that deep cuts to the program are likely.
“With a cut that large, there’s no way for that to happen without real people having their coverage terminated,” April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said at an event last Thursday in Shawnee billed as a community conversation on Medicaid.
“When we look at the people who do have Medicaid and who would be harmed by those cuts, it’s really children, and seniors who are in nursing homes and paying for their nursing home care through Medicaid. It is people who have disabilities (and) pregnant women,” she added.
On the other hand, Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall assured people in a Zoom call this week that any cuts would not affect people who need it.
“I’m going to do everything possible to strengthen Medicaid, to strengthen it and save it for those who really need it the most,” he said in direct response to a question from the Post. “I think that’s what’s important. We’re not going to take Medicaid away from seniors in nursing homes, and we’re not going to take Medicaid away from those who really need it.”
Johnson Countians shared personal stories about Medicaid
More than 100 people attended the “Community Conversation on Medicaid” at the Monticello branch of Johnson County Library in Shawnee last Thursday.
Sponsored by the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a coalition that supports Medicaid expansion in the state, the event was the last of four statewide events discussing the federal program that currently has more than 71.8 million people enrolled in it.
At the event, Johnson County residents, officials and health advocates, spoke about the dangers posed if they or their loved ones lost Medicaid coverage or had services slashed.
Speaking for her brother, who has Down syndrome, Johnson County commissioner Becky Fast, who is also a social worker, said Medicaid has played a major role in him being able to live a happy life.
“When my brother got through high school, (he) could go to a group home (where) he could have supportive housing, that he could have help with his bathing and eating and live fully in the community, all supported by Medicaid,” she said.
After both of Fast’s parents died, she is now her brother’s legal guardian.
“He gets Social Security to help pay for things, but he only gets to keep $2,000 a month each month,” she said. “Now I’m worried that his Social Security won’t be there, that DOGE will take his Social Security. I can help pay for that, but many families can’t make up the difference.”
Remembering a student she had as a special education teacher, Lenexa resident Robin Olson said she saw how the child’s life and her family were changed through Medicaid assistance.
“Once she started getting the therapy she needed, this girl started to bloom through the hard work that she did with her occupational therapist. She was able to finally learn to manipulate her hands. She was able to learn to color. She was able to learn, eventually, to write,” she said. “Without Medicaid, who knows where this girl and where that family would be?”
Medicaid has been an issue in Kansas for years
For years, Medicaid expansion has been a key issue for Democrats in Kansas but the Republican-controlled Legislature has stymied repeated bids to push through legislation.
Kansas is one of nine states that has not expanded Medicaid coverage under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
For seven consecutive years, including this past February, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has offered up expansion plans to the Legislature, but the proposals have never advanced through the two chambers.
Under the ACA, the federal government will cover up to 90% of the cost of covering families at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. In Kansas, advocates have long said that expanding Medicaid would cover an additional 150,000 people.
During Thursday’s community conversation, Johnson County Sheriff Byron Roberson, a Democrat, expressed support for expanding Medicaid as a cost-saving measure for his office.
He said that taking care of people who are in jail, including providing mental and physical health care, costs the county about $8.5 million a year.
“Imagine if we could get some Medicaid expansion to take care of some of those people that are more than likely eligible to have Medicaid, but don’t have it because of the system that we have in Kansas,” he said. “Now, it’s not going to be everyone, but I can guarantee you that it would make a dent in that $8.5 million we pay every year to take care of the people that are in jail because they have to have care.”
On the other hand, Marshall said the states most likely to experience the biggest Medicaid cuts under the spending packages being considered by Congress will be the ones that expanded it.
“I think a lot of the money savings we’re going to see probably is in the Medicaid expansion states, which Kansas has fortunately not done,” he said. “Medicaid has lost its way. Spending on it has increased … It was meant for people that that really needed some help, but it’s now grown to over 90 million people on Medicaid. We’re going to spend a trillion dollars on Medicaid this year, but I’m out here fighting to preserve it and protect it for those who need it the most.”
Rural Kansas hospitals at risk, health providers say
During a media briefing on potential Medicaid cuts on Tuesday, health professionals, like Benjamin Anderson, president and CEO of Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, worried about the effect on hospitals, especially those in rural areas, that are already under financial strain.
“We can’t afford to lose (more money) and continue to serve folks in the community, because we don’t turn people away, regardless of how they pay or if they can pay,” he said. “So, if we remove that safety net, we destabilize health care, not only for those folks but for the entire community, which includes a lot of working folks that do have insurance, that rely on this health care delivery system.”
In Kansas, 63 rural hospitals are at risk of closing with 26 of those at more immediate risk, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform.
“(Kansas) is one of the leading states in the nation for (rural) hospitals that are at risk of closure,” Anderson said. “That is not a contest we want to win, and we do not end up better on that list after these cuts go into effect.”
A Lenexa father’s sense of hope
Cory Kennedy of Lenexa spoke last Thursday about his daughter, Lily, who was born with a chromosomal abnormality that caused her to be on the autism spectrum and have hearing loss. Kenney has created a website to detail Lily’s life and health struggles.
After going into cardiac arrest in 2022, Lily now suffers from the effects of a brain injury caused by the lack of oxygen during that medical crisis.
“She is completely dependent now on a cocktail of medication and care — everything that Medicaid provides,” he said.
With Medicaid, Kennedy said she’s able to receive the care she needs, like medications, a gastronomy tube to provide nutrition, and full-time nursing care at home.
While he’s worried about the future of Medicaid, Kennedy said seeing dozens of others gather at the Shawnee library to discuss it and hear more about the program’s impacts gave him hope.
“It just fills me with good feelings that people are fighting this fight,” he said.
