Medicaid expansion: Is there something the matter with Kansas?

One of the key parts of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) effort to cover most Americans was the expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone under 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The Supreme Court decision in 2012 (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius) found in favor of the “individual mandate”, allowing the law to go forward, but found against the ability of the federal government to withhold all Medicaid funding from states that did not expand Medicaid. This decision did not prevent the federal government from creating an incentive for states to expand Medicaid, which it did; for the first 4 years the federal share of cost of expansion would be 100%, dropping to 90% thereafter. This is quite a financial incentive, and as of December 15, 2015, 31 states have expanded Medicaid, 4 are considering it, and 16 are not, depicted on this map from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

Neither of the Kansas City area states, Kansas and Missouri, are in the expansion group, and thus a significant portion of their population remains uncovered. Like the other 14, control of their legislatures (and in Kansas, of the governor’s office) is in the hands of very conservative Republicans ideologically hostile to ACA. However, this is a problem not only for the poor people left without insurance and their advocates (like many of the healthcare foundations), but also the states’ hospitals, who continue to have to provide care for these people without reimbursement. To some degree it is also a problem for the state’s business community because more than half of the this group of people are employed, mainly in small businesses that cannot afford to buy private health insurance. It also decreases, in the opinion of many Chambers of Commerce, the state’s ability to attract new business and jobs.

On January 5, 2016, I attended a forum on expanding KanCare (Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program) sponsored by many of these business organizations (6 Chambers of Commerce), hospitals, physician provider organizations, and healthcare foundations (see list of sponsors on KC COC site). The event, held in Overland Park in the Kansas City area, followed a similar one held in Wichita in November, 2015.  It began with a presentation by Dave Kerr, a Republican former president of the Kansas State Senate, detailing how Medicaid expansion would bring in at least 10 times what the state would have to spend. After this were two panels, one consisting of 5 KS legislators (3 Republican, 2 Democratic; 3 senators, 2 representatives), and the other of 5 healthcare experts.

Prominently included in the second group was the president of the Indiana Hospital Association, Doug Leonard, who presented how his state had effectively expanded Medicaid. The presumption of the sponsors of the event was that this would resonate in Kansas, because Indiana is also a conservative state with a very conservative governor (Mike Pence) who had mandated the expansion based on certain principles of individual responsibility and fiscal neutrality. Indiana’s plan is one of 4 (those with asterisks on the map) that were developed with federal waivers. In its first year, it has enrolled 220,000 people into its Medicaid program, and, largely because it is paying providers at Medicare rates, increased by 1,000 those who accept Medicaid. It is paid for by a combination of increased cigarette taxes and levies on hospitals.

Unsurprisingly, this resonated well with most of the attendees and speakers, although support was not universal. Sen. Jim Denning (R., Overland Park), who is considered a health policy leader in the state senate (apparently he works for a group of private ophthalmologists), indicated that Indiana’s program would not pay for itself after the first year and would have to tap into the state general fund. The moderator asked Mr. Leonard, who drily indicated that perhaps Sen. Denning had information that Indiana did not have. When the moderator asked Sen. Denning the source of his information, he indicated “the Forbes article”. Mr. Leonard responded that, first of all, it was not an article but a blog post in Forbes, and second that the state had responded point-by-point to its incorrect assertions.  

Sen. Denning’s credibility as a source of facts was already questionable, as he had previously asserted that Medicaid expansion would affect only those between 100% and 138% of the FPL as those below 100% were already eligible for KanCare (not true; in Kansas, adults actually must be actual below about 33% of FPL, in addition to being a a special group like mothers of dependent children or disabled, to be eligible for KanCare) and that those between 100% and 138% of FPL could buy subsidized “silver” plan coverage on the exchanges for about $2.50 a month (not true; those below 138% of FPL are not eligible to buy coverage on the exchanges at all). I do not know if he misspoke or whether he believes those assertions to be true. If the latter, it is not clear whether whether those misconceptions in part inform his opposition to KanCare expansion (and thus could be changed by the facts) or if his ideological opposition informs his willingness to believe such incorrect information. However, he is a leader in the state senate, and so he is probably accurate when he asserts that the KS legislature will not expand KanCare. Other legislators on the panel, including the Republicans, indicated that such expansion would require leadership from KS Governor Sam Brownback, which the governor has not indicated will be forthcoming. One, Sen. Jeff King (R., Independence) is from the town whose hospital recently closed, at least in part because it could not count on KanCare expansion; he indicated that his father, who had had 2 heart attacks, was now 25 miles, not ¾ of a mile, from the closest hospital.

Beyond Sen. Denning, there were other concerns about the forum. Every panel member was white, and other than one state senator, Laura Kelly (D., Topeka), every one was man. Women gave the opening and closing remarks, but there were no people of color who spoke. This was obvious, but not the only important way in which the speakers (at least) and probably audience differed from the average person. One reason was that there were a lot of business leaders, because they have clout. They do, however, have a limited – and not always accurate – view of the rest of the people in this country. They seem to think that support for expansion of KanCare (and other social programs) is important until people get good jobs and get these benefits from their work (they referred a lot, disparagingly, to the “able bodied unemployed”). But where are the jobs? Job creation is supposed to be a high priority of the governor and legislature, and is the stated reason for the dramatic tax cuts of 2012 (indeed, rich people are now renamed “job creators”) but not only has job growth been slow, but it is mostly in lousy jobs – poorly paid and without benefits (eg., health insurance!). There was a great deal of talk about “retraining”, but there simply are not enough “good” jobs to employ everyone no matter how retrained they are. Their myopia may be because many well-to-do people have contact with others who are like them; in their neighborhoods, work, and country clubs. They have little insight into the real issues confronting those in the bottom 80%, not to mention 50% or 10%. I doubt they even know what the numbers are, but this article from CNN Money, with its neat interactive graph, should help; the median household (not individual) income in the US is $52,000.

I see lots of both poor and “regular” people as a doctor in the clinic and in the hospital. I live in a neighborhood that is mostly, well, working class. I see my neighbors, adults and children, on the streets when I walk my dogs. They’re trying, but it is not easy for them. Jobs are scarce, and many of those  that  they can get involve the sort of physical labor that takes its toll on their bodies and leaves them prematurely disabled. Lack of health insurance exacerbates their problems. A major recent NY Times/Kaiser Family Foundation study, reported by the NY Times, finds “Even Insured can face crushing medical debt”. Those business leaders who may think that $200K a year (for a household, most with two earners) is “middle class” should know it puts that household in the top 5% (and, for goodness sakes, in many parts of the country households making $200K are still struggling!). It would be good for them to meet with some regular folks and find out about their lives. I applaud the work that the various healthcare foundations in Kansas, many of whom co-sponsored this event, are doing. But our leaders, political, business, and otherwise, need a little reality check to leaven the ideology.

There are a lot of things that impact on whether a person is healthy besides access to health care (the social determinants of health: housing, warmth, food, education, safety, etc.). But access to health care helps. 

Tax policy, drug companies and the public's health

Tax policy is complicated. You have to figure out who to tax and how much, and how much revenue it will bring in and what you (the government) needs to spend the money on and figure out how to match it up. People of different political stripes differ with regard to how much money to spend on what, and also who to tax. For example, is it better to have more graduated income tax (a “progressive” tax, where the more you make the higher percent you pay on the incremental amount), or more “regressive” tax where everyone, regardless of income pays the same amount, like a sales tax, or a “proportional tax” where everyone pays the same percent but not the same amount, like some variations of “flat tax”?

In Kansas, for example, our Governor and Legislature have made that decision. Faced with enormous budget deficits as a result of 2012 massive tax cuts on corporations and wealthy individuals, and unable to make it all up with one-time fixes such as raiding the state highway fund (hope those corporations don’t need to transport goods on our roads), they have gone for big sales tax increases. This is because, to them, the 2012 tax cuts are sacrosanct, because they believe that this will stimulate the economy and create jobs. They believe this even though such a strategy has not worked so far in Kansas and has in fact not worked anywhere. They even brought in Arthur Laffer, the trickle-down guru economist, to address the legislature. Nonetheless, owners of “S” corporations (usually small businesses, like lawyer’s offices, or the few remaining private practice doctors’ offices) do not pay state tax on the income they make from being the owners. Their employees -- nurses and secretaries and legal assistants – do, along with the new higher sales taxes. The Governor and Legistlature have other plans as well; faced by a State Supreme Court decision to increase public school funding by a half-billion dollars or so that they don’t have (vide supra), they are thinking about not funding the State Supreme Court. Could be a solution, if they can get around the constitutional issue.

The Federal Government also has to deal with such issues. In the last 50 years our income tax policy has become less progressive, with a top rate of 35% rather than 90% when I was taking civics in junior high school. (Please note that this is not a flat tax of 90% on all of top-earners’ income, but on the marginal amount above the next lower tax rate; everyone paid the same percent on earnings up to each next bracket.) Also in that civics class, we saw that corporate income tax made up more income for the feds than personal tax. Not any more. Corporations are getting away with paying very low taxes, and with the new “global economy” taking more and more of their profits abroad, where they can avoid paying tax until they are re-patriated. To encourage them to do so, the Congress is considering legislation to create a “tax holiday”; this is where corporations are rewarded for bringing their profits home by paying a lower tax rate on them. This has been done before, and been amazingly unsuccessful. So let’s try it again. Like Kansas, why learn from experience? Why not, for example, tax those international earnings? After all, if they are creating jobs, it is not in the US.

Also like Kansas, the US has a problem with roads and other infrastructure, and the Federal Government funds much of the cost of repairs, which are unfortunately not being done. A study by the Center for Effective Government, “Burning our Bridges” notes that “To modernize our infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated it would cost $3.6 trillion by 2020. They warned that if we fail to make these investments, American citizens and businesses will face costs of $1.8 trillion a year in travel delays, water leaks, and power failures.” How has Congress responded? It's slashed infrastructure spending to the lowest levels since the post-WWII era.

 

 But where could we get the money? Is the amount of money not being paid by US corporations on international earnings that big? Well, there is $2.1 trillion in untaxed international income, so that could be a chunk of change. About half of it is held by 26 corporations. Apple has the most, and GE is #2. The enormously profitable pharmaceutical industry (I have previously noted that it is, each year, either #1 or, well, #1 in profit among US industries) has about $82 billion among its 7 largest companies. Given that the report is called “Burning our Bridges”, it is of interest to note that this is enough money to pay for all US bridge repair and maintenance needs.

I guess this is where the public health and medical part of this post comes in. Let’s just think about that. We have drug companies charging “whatever the market will bear” for their products; for some of the recent recombinant DNA treatments for autoimmune diseases, Hepatitis C, and cancer this can range into 5 digits (before the decimal point) a month. They try every trick in the book to keep their prices high and patents in place to prevent generic competition. Some I have addressed before include changing the formulation of the drug -- the FDA mandated elimination of fluorocarbons as propellants in inhalers was a bonanza because changing to non-fluorocarbon propellants was a “new formulation” allowing them to extend their patents. Or taking drugs used by, but not previously tested and approved for use by, children and testing them (when already, via practice, shown to be safe) in children, also extending their patents. Or in some the most offensive practices, testing drugs that have been used for generations and patenting them, thus jacking up their prices. The prime example is the gout treatment colchicine, formerly available for about 10 cents a pill and now available for $355 for 60 (about $5.20 a pill!).

In Canada, there are price controls on drugs, so they cost less. Thus pharmaceutical manufacturers try to block import (and Internet sale) of drugs from Canada. The Medicare drug benefit, (Part D) passed in the GW Bush administration, forbid Medicare from using its purchasing clout to negotiate lower prices. The new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pushed through by the Obama administration will offer more protections; corporations will be able to sue governments to ensure their profits, not in real courts but in specialized TPP pro-business “courts”. I wonder how long the price restrictions on drugs in Canada and elsewhere, not to mention the manufacture of affordable generic equivalents of high-priced HIV drugs in Brazil, India, and Thailand, will continue?

I personally am rooting for the success of the Brownback tax cuts to create jobs in Kansas. Not because I think they were good or even close to moral, or even because I think that they have a prayer of being successful, but as long as they are in place it would be nice to see some new jobs. It’s not going to happen with this state government. TPP passed, and there is no meaningful effort to either tax the international profits of pharmaceutical and other corporations, or to force drug manufacturers to make their products affordable in the US.

In their recent paper “Fantasy paradigms of health inequalities: Utopian thinking?”, Alex Scott-Samuel and Kathleen Smith note that "In a capitalist society, where liberal macroeconomic policies position virtually all economic activity – including unhealthy activity – as beneficial, there is an inbuilt incentive to ‘blame the victim’ rather than to tackle the corporate and economic causes of the problem."[1] We prefer not to regulate unhealthy activity (when we have done so, such as with making cars safer and limiting smoking, it took intensive, long-term campaigns by public health advocates), and we allow corporations such as drug companies to profiteer from our trying to repair the damage to our health. And we also let them not pay taxes, which we really need.

It's time to get serious, and hold them responsible and make them responsive.

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[1] Scott-Samuel, A. & Smith, K. E. (2015).Fantasy paradigms of health inequalities: Utopian thinking? Social Theory & Health, advance online publication, 1 July 2015; doi: 10.1057/sth.2015.12

Kansas only state to increase number of uninsured: A how NOT to do it strategy

The title of Alan Bavley’s article, “Kansas is only state to see an increase in its uninsured rate, survey says”, (Kansas City Star, August 5, 2014) kind of says it all. It could be seen as a victory by some. Four years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aimed at expanding health coverage to more Americans by a combination of strategies including the creation of both state-run and federally-run (for those states that chose not to run their own) insurance exchanges to match people seeking coverage with insurance companies and subsidizing premiums for the moderately low-income, and expanding Medicaid for the very low-income, Kansas has succeeded in actually reducing the number of people covered!

The adult uninsured rate in Kansas rose from 12.5 percent last year to 17.6 percent during the first half of this year, giving the state the seventh-highest rate in the nation, according to data collected as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index…. in other states uninsured rates declined or remained unchanged. Kansas was the only state with a statistically significant increase in the percentage of uninsured residents.

One could construct a fantasy out of whole cloth demonstrating how this proves why the opponents of the ACA were right all along; that it is not increasing health care coverage because it is evil and socialist, and that the increased costs for some people, along with cuts in the number of employed folks because of policies that do not always support “job creators” (read: very rich people) have decreased our employer-based insured group. Of course, that would be incorrect, but I expect to see it anyway.

In fact, those governing my state have worked very hard to make this happen. Governor Brownback and most of the state legislature are strong opponents of Obamacare, and have done what they could to make it not succeed. When the Supreme Court ruling allowed states to opt out of expanding Medicaid, Kansas did so, eliminating the very poor (under 133% of poverty) from the method the law intended for them to receive coverage. Kansas also chose not to develop a state-run insurance exchange and pu up as many obstacles as it could to the federally-run one. One of two Court of Appeals decisions (discussed in this blog in ACA: Where are we? And where should we go?, July 27, 2014) ruled that subsidies could be available only to enrollees in state-run exchanges (which Kansas doesn’t have); it hasn’t gone into effect yet, because another district’s Court ruled the other way, so we will have to wait for the Supreme Court to decide, but if it is upheld would bolster the number of Kansans not getting insurance.

But a decrease in the number of insured? The only one? Surely that is a notable accomplishment. How did we pull that off? “’It’s eye-popping. Kansas really sticks out,’ said Dan Witters, research director for the Well-Being Index, an ongoing national poll that surveys people’s health, relationships and finances.” For starters, it could, possibly, not be exactly true, but a data anomaly of the survey somehow. This is basically the position of the state’s Insurance Commissioner, Sandy Praeger, who said

…the number “appears to be an anomaly that needs more review. To have the uninsured jump that much in one year would be unprecedented.” The uninsured numbers in Kansas have hovered around 12 to 13 percent for many years, Praeger said, adding, “We will try to find out where the discrepancy is.”

This is worth noting, as Praeger is one of the few honest, trustworthy, and non-ideological members of state government in Kansas. Note that she does not claim that it is a liberal lie, or that it is a good thing, but just that it is inconsistent with previous data and she will try to find out why there is a discrepancy. If that is the reason, I’m sure she will.

But there are reasons to think that the numbers may not be inaccurate, even if they turn out not to be quite as bad as this survey indicates. Since the election of Governor Brownback in 2010, and with the support of the legislature, taxes in Kansas have been slashed, particularly income tax rates on high-income people and corporations and business taxes. The motivation was a profound belief in supply-side economics, that tax cuts would stimulate job growth.  Unfortunately, it has not. Job growth in Kansas has been more sluggish than in the country as a whole, and the state is facing enormous deficits. Cuts in spending have been dramatic, but the problem is, in fact, on the supply side – not enough tax revenue.  People don’t have jobs, and thus often don’t have enough income to qualify themselves for the exchanges, even if subsidies are allowed by SCOTUS to continue. The state has a very large number of undocumented workers (and most are indeed working, or in families of people working) who would not be eligible for coverage by any part of ACA, and can only get it if their employers pay for it. Which many do not.

While many states with Republican governors have pursued many of the same tacks as Kansas, including limiting the impact of ACA and cutting taxes, Kansas has been in many ways a test case for these strategies, even more than Wisconsin, because of its strong Republican tradition. Americans for Prosperity has a very strong political and financial influence in the state, and it is heavily financed by the Koch brothers whose Koch Industries is based in Wichita, Kansas (where Charles Koch still lives). Cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations, and blocking any opposition to fossil fuel expansion, is the cornerstone of state politics, not ensuring the health or well-being of its residents.

In a larger sense, however, this is more than a story about Kansas. It may be the only state with a statistically significant increase in uninsured in the last year, but it is far from the state with the largest percentage of uninsured. Many other states that have not expanded Medicaid, and cut social services, have similar situations. Sadly, of course, many of these states (particularly in the southeast) started pretty far down, much worse than Kansas did, and have dug themselves deeper in the hole. The real story, I think, is in the states that, despite being southern and conservative, have chosen to expand Medicaid, and have seen real benefit for their people.

The Gallup poll found that the 10 states with the largest reductions in uninsured rates this year had all expanded their Medicaid programs and had either created their own exchanges or partnered with the federal government on an exchange. Arkansas saw the steepest decline, from 22.5 percent uninsured in 2013 to 12.4 percent this year. Kentucky was second with a decline from 20.4 percent uninsured to 11.9 percent.

Good policies can actually help. The state with the actual highest rate of uninsured people is Texas. “Look out, Texas,” Governor Brownback stated in announcing his original tax cuts, “here comes Kansas!”  He was talking about job growth, which we haven’t achieved, but we are making much more progress on denying people access to healthcare coverage.

Medicaid Expansion: Do we care for people or not?

A cornerstone of the health coverage reforms in the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the expansion of Medicaid to a large population currently ineligible for this benefit. This was intended to cover those who work but have low wage jobs that neither offer health insurance nor sufficient pay to buy health insurance on the private market. (This latter is, in itself, a a very large obstacle; most people in “high-wage” jobs – considered by the Department of Labor to be above about $45,000 a year -- would have great difficulty paying for private health insurance.) In most states, Medicaid covers two populations: children in very poor families and their mothers (in general, if there is a father in the home, the family is not eligible) and poor people in nursing homes (who may well not have been poor until they spent time in a nursing home). Although the first group is much larger, the latter costs much more money because the health care services that they require are so much greater.

The standards for income eligibility vary from state to state, but in many states, including Kansas and Missouri (the states on either side of the Kansas City metropolitan area) it is well below the poverty level. Childless adults, unless they qualify for physical or mental disability, are rarely eligible for Medicaid no matter how poor. Medicaid is a federal/state shared program; depending upon mean state income, the federal government pays 60-80% of the cost. In order to make expansion more acceptable to many states that are already financially strapped, ACA provides for the federal government to pay 100% of the cost of the expansion for the first 3 years, and 90% thereafter. But, nonetheless, this expansion is in jeopardy in many states, because, essentially, the governor, legislative leaders, or both, oppose having the government insure most people. The decision by the Supreme Court that upheld ACA struck down the plan to pull all Medicaid funding from states that did not opt for expansion, thus seriously weakening the leverage that the federal government has to encourage it.

“Paul Nelson works for $10 an hour at a Kansas City car shop, suffers from diabetes and can’t afford the medicine to deal with it,” write Steve Kraske and Jason Hancock in the Kansas City Star, April 27, 2013. In “Nixon’s pleas for Medicaid expansion go unheeded”, they describe how “The working father still earns too much to be eligible for Missouri’s Medicaid program. That’s why he was hoping — praying may be a better word — for an expansion of the program this year so that he could get health coverage.” Nelson is the kind of person who might benefit from Medicaid expansion, but is probably not going to get it because the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is so opposed to expansion, despite the strong lobbying efforts of Democratic Governor Jay Nixon, who “…displayed more gusto for the cause than any issue since he became governor in 2009…”  is now regarded as “…dead, buried, gone.” Nixon had considered the federally-funded expansion a “no-brainer”, and the fact that “An early February poll by American Viewpoint, which usually surveys for Republicans, found that voters backed expansion by 56-35 percent once they heard ‘a balanced set of arguments for and against the proposal,’” has not swayed the legislature.

In Kansas, Republican governor Sam Brownback has been playing it close to the vest regarding this issue, but Kansas legislative leaders are very strongly opposed to expansion. Brownback engineered the elimination of any opposition to his very conservative policies by running opponents to “moderate” GOP senators (the House was already in the control of the far right) in the 2012 primaries. With major funding from the Koch brothers, abetted by the traditionally low and skewed-to-the-base turnout in primaries, almost all were victorious; even the President of the Senate, Steve Morris, a rancher from far southwestern Kansas, was defeated by a young and inexperienced, but well-financed, challenger. On one issue, funding for higher education, Brownback is currently staking himself out as a relative moderate, compared to legislative leaders, as he is opposing the cuts that they have proposed. If perhaps a bit suspect, since not only did he engineer their victories but his prior budgets have significantly cut higher education, it could potentially signal a willingness to do something similar with Medicaid.

Meanwhile, as the continuation headline for the Star article, “Obama’s switch hurt efforts here”, makes clear, the administration has added its own disincentive to that of the Supreme Court by backing off on cutting Disproportionate Share (DSH) payments to hospitals that take care of a high percentage of Medicaid and uninsured patients. This weakened the commitment of hospitals and their agents, the state hospital associations (and, even more the Chambers of Commerce, which never really support publicly-funded health insurance expansion in any form) to supporting Medicaid expansion. Most still do, though, because they have been counting on expansion of Medicaid to increase their revenue from patients (like, say, Paul Nelson) who were previously uninsured and make up for cuts in Medicare payments, which are already taking place.

But much more important than the financial interests of hospitals or doctors, much more important than the posturing of politicians, is the impact on actual people. Paul Nelson is one person, but there are hundreds of thousands of people in his position in Kansas and Missouri, and many millions in the US. Their numbers are increasing; in an article in the Washington Post about the “Governments may push workers out of employer health care and into health exchange”, cited by Don McCanne’s “Quote of the Day” for April 26, “The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, for example, began experimenting last year with putting more workers on part-time status.” While the focus of the article is on insurance exchanges, the probability is that low-wage workers who are put on part-time status would be more likely to qualify for Medicaid expansion.

Opponents of Medicaid expansion, in Missouri, Kansas, and elsewhere, often sound concerns about the cost, despite the fact that the federal government will pick up almost all of it. On the finances, they are wrong. But of greater concern they are not really motivated by their flawed understanding of economics, they are motivated by a lack of concern for people who are not like them, and a commitment to policies which expand the wealth of the richest individuals and biggest corporations at the expense of regular people. As the “American Viewpoint” survey points out, it is not the belief of most people, who do care about the health needs of themselves, their friends and neighbors and relatives. And, maybe even, other people who they don’t know.

The ACA, even with Medicaid expansion, even with insurance exchanges, even without changes to DSH or Medicare, does not cover everyone. Glaringly missing are those who, although without papers, are here, working in our community, living by our sides, often paying in through taxes (sales for sure, and frequently income) and sometimes needing health care, as well as others who fall outside the complexities of health insurance coverage. What we really need is an expanded Medicare-for-all, “everyone in, nobody out”. This is the real rational plan. But ACA does cover children up to the age of 26, it will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and if states proceed with Medicaid expansion, will cover a whole lot more people who desperately need it.

People like Paul Nelson. People like the folks across the street. Maybe people like you. Our people.

Kansas, Medicaid expansion, and human rights

In his well-covered “state of the state” speech, the Governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback (full text from the Lawrence Journal World, reported by the Kansas City Star or as you prefer either the Huffington Post’s reporting of it or the Kansas City Business Journal’s), addressed the thorny issue of Medicaid, the program that ostensibly provides medical coverage for the poor, but in reality only covers a portion of them. Most states do not cover childless adults, no matter how poor, unless they are demonstrably disabled, and what qualifies varies from state to state. The financial standard for eligibility is also very variable from state to state; in many places, including Kansas, it is well below the poverty line. Most Medicaid recipients are children in dire poverty and their mothers, and most Medicaid dollars are spent on nursing home care for the medically indigent (and, given the cost of nursing home care, it is really easy to become indigent if you are in one for very long). One of the mainstays of increased coverage for the uninsured in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the expansion of Medicaid to all people under about 140% of the federal poverty level.

Brownback said that “Many states have made the choice to either kick people off Medicaid or pay doctors less. Neither of those choices provides better outcomes. Kansas has a better solution,” but, while whether it is better or not may depend upon one’s interpretation of that word, it is not likely to cover more Kansans. He has indicated that no state money would be spent on expanding Medicaid. This does not, however, mean that there will be no Medicaid expansion in Kansas, as for the first several years the costs of such expansion under the ACA will be 100% borne by the federal government. If the state opts for taking the money (and the governor, unlike many other very conservative governors in the US, has been coy about this) it will be able to do so without state dollars. Brownback is committed to eliminating the state income tax, to compete with states like Texas (“Look out Texas, here comes Kansas!”) and is confident, along with his funders like “Americans for Prosperity”, that business growth resulting from his already-implemented tax cut, which has cut almost 1/3 of the state budget income, will more than make up for it (critics note that other states without income taxes have other big sources of revenue, such as oil in Texas and tourism in Florida, that Kansas does not have). This job growth is also part of his plan for getting people off Medicaid “With jobs providing an off ramp from Medicaid, we will be able help those in need of services and reduce our waiting list.” (Did I mention there was a waiting list?) But, of course, this assumes that those jobs will come with health insurance. Definitely not a certainty, as most will be low-wage jobs, the kind most likely to not have health insurance coverage, and a state requirement for such coverage is definitely not something supported by the Governor or his political allies.

Whether Brownback will actually refuse the federal funds is uncertain; not all conservative governors have stuck to this principled, if cruel, position. Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona, a darling of the right with her aggressive enforcement of Arizona’s anti-immigrant laws (in an interesting coincidence, largely written by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach), has reluctantly agreed to accept this money (“Medicaid expansion is delicate maneuver for Arizona’s Republican governor”, New York Times, January 20, 2013), as have Republican governors Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada. Of course, all three have a large and growing Latino population which supports and will benefit from Medicaid expansion, and whose votes are becoming increasingly important. Latinos are also the fastest growing population in Kansas, accounting for 70% of the state’s population growth from 2000-2010; they are not only in the bigger cities such as Wichita and Kansas City – the state’s first majority-minority counties are in its southwest -- but they are still not a significant enough voting block for Brownback to have any concern that they might swing an election to a Democrat. Indeed, in the 2012 election, extremely conservative Republicans supported by the Governor and lots of money from Wichita’s Koch brothers unseated most of the states just very conservative Republicans in primaries, giving him control of the state senate as well as house. Indeed, one of those defeated was the Senate majority leader, a rancher from the far southwestern corner of the state where the Latino vote did not prevent him from being beaten by a Koch-funded political newcomer.

Of course, there are reasons to doubt the core economics of Governor Brownback’s policies, based on the state’s economy picking up as a result of his tax cuts; even if one believes that will happen, it will be a long time and those whose benefits have been cut (who, given that the vast majority of the state budget is spent on education, followed by Medicaid and other core social services for the aged and disabled, will be the most vulnerable and our future) will suffer. As for the benefit of no state income tax, I lived in Texas, and the result is that every other tax is burdensome, and those taxes are much more unfair than a graduated income tax: real estate taxes that hurt the elderly and sales taxes that hurt those for whom the costs of the necessities of life are most of their income.

Expanding Medicaid, as called for by ACA, will not solve the problems of uninsurance. There remain not only the undocumented, but those who are employed by businesses that do not provide health insurance, including many that are too small to be required to do so even under the new law (and these are the jobs that Brownback’s policies, if they are successful, are most likely to create). But it will certainly help many families. And that should be the role of government, to help its people survive, and become educated, and be able to maintain their health. Economic growth will likely follow, at least much more likely than by cutting the taxes on the most wealthy.

And of course, at the most basic level, economic growth is not the goal; it is at best a strategy for improving the lives of our people. An article in Kansas City Star on January 20, 2013 ( “As the number of minority students grows in area schools, a learning gap remains” addresses the growth of minority, African-American and Latino, students in suburban as well as inner-city school districts. The article notes that the way school taxes are tied to real estate, “The rich get richer.” But it also quotes an educational leader who notes that “The moral imperative is now an economic imperative….The purchasing power of the new generation will depend heavily on the achievement of students of color. Social Security will need their economic success.

‘Everyone needs to understand…Someone else’s child is directly linked to your economic security.’” That is all true, but, at bottom, the core reason to provide education and health care is not so people will be able buy more stuff.

Recently, I saw the movie Les Misérables. I may be one of the few who did not see the stage play, but I am familiar with the story and loved the Jean-Paul Belmondo version set in WW II. Yes, it was long and not every actor was a great singer, but it told the story, and the story is of the oppression of the poor by those with power, and the occasional brave resistance of people who speak truth to power. And, in the last scene, after Jean Valjean dies, he is transported to a heaven not of clouds and harps and angels with wings, but one in which he and all of those who fought with him are standing on a barricade, continuing the fight.

Yes, the rich and powerful will buy and will influence politicians, and they will often win. But as health workers, and as citizens, it is our job to keep on advocating for the core needs of people, especially education and health care, to be met, not as a byproduct of economic development but as a human right.