Topeka – Gov. Laura Kelly’s bipartisan Medicaid expansion proposal received support from child care and family advocates in the state during a Medicaid expansion hearing in the Kansas State Legislature last month. Their testimony was submitted to a hearing at a joint session of the House Health and Human Services Committee and the Senate Public Health and Human Services Committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Expanding Medicaid would give an additional 150,000 Kansans access to health insurance, including currently uninsured children. When more parents have insurance, their children are more likely to receive the regular checkups and preventive care they need for healthy development.
Here’s what they’re saying:
“Every day I hear stories of families struggling to make ends meet, citing medical debt as the reason they have been pushed into poverty. I also hear stories of families unable to get the care they need. Not having one means that parents are less likely to have regular jobs and more likely to struggle to meet the basic needs of their families, which means that employers are less likely to have a stable and healthy workforce. impact on our ability to retain an engaged workforce.”
—Secretary Laura Howard, Kansas Children and Family Department
“Kansas’ healthy children and their families are critical to our state’s future. Their health depends on regular access to quality care, including checkups, screenings, vaccinations, mental health resources, and dental exams. Lack of health care, especially during childhood, can lead to chronic disease, reduced life expectancy, increased lifetime medical costs, and increased morbidity in family members. [Medicaid] Expansion helps them and their families. ”
—Heather Braum, Health Policy Advisor, Kansas Action for Children
“For people living in rural Kansan, access to education and health care is a quality of life issue. When a rural hospital closes, it starts a domino effect of challenges that also negatively impact public schools. SB 355. Passage will strengthen and sustain local health systems, ensure rural Kansan residents have access to the health care they need, and revitalize our economy and public school system.”
—Timothy Graham, director of government relations and legislation for the Kansas National Education Association
“Expanding Medicaid in Kansas would provide essential health coverage to thousands of low-income people, including pregnant women and newborns, who currently do not have access to comprehensive prenatal and postnatal care. Access allows these people to receive timely screenings, prenatal visits, and necessary interventions to support healthy pregnancies and positive birth outcomes.”
—Sharla Smith, CEO and Founder, Kansas Birth Equity Network
“In states without expansion, like Kansas, rural hospitals are six times more likely to close. There is already a shortage of pediatric hospital beds in the United States. Hospital beds for children are readily available in Kansas, but she sees situations where children are unable to access these beds, especially during a surge in respiratory illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and COVID-19. Did. Expanding Medicaid will give Kansas children and adults access to critical rural hospitals.”
–Dr.Dena Hubbard and Dr. Andrew Donaldson, Kansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
“Among the approximately 150,000 Kansans who will benefit from Medicaid expansion are child care workers who play a critical role in the upbringing of our youngest citizens. Unfortunately, many of these providers lack access to affordable care, making it difficult for them to prioritize their own health. Ensuring access to health insurance could encourage more people to pursue careers in child care and help meet the growing demand for child care services. ”
—Tanya Koehn, Interim Executive Director of Childcare Aware of Kansas
“As child welfare providers, we work every day with children and families who are some of the most vulnerable populations in Kansas. Supporting these families requires access to quality health care. Important: Many people are taking precautions to keep their children safe in their homes, and children who must enter foster care are eligible for Medicaid services. However, many of the families we support are not, and therefore, in need of affordable, quality health care, many families in Kansas do not qualify. .”
—Rachel Marsh, CEO of Children’s Alliance of Kansas
“My children have been on a form of Medicaid most of their lives, which means we have to pay for every doctor’s visit, every hospitalization, every dental appointment, every medication, every treatment, every… My wife and I don’t have enough income to buy actual health insurance, and we can barely afford it because of our jobs. We let it expire once, and it devastated our finances. Thank you for SB355. I can’t think of anything that could improve the lives of more Kansans with the stroke of a pen.”
—Jonathan Smith, Kansan
Testimony from the House hearing can be found here Learn more about the Senate Information Hearing here. here.
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