By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, April 18
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is urging her political supporters to lobby legislators to finish their work on the year”s most significant health reform bill when they return next week to wrap-up the 2007 session.
The governor,
in an e-mail sent Tuesday by her campaign committee
to approximately 70,000 supporters, endorsed passage of House substitute for Senate Bill 11, which, among other things, would create a state program to purchase private insurance for an additional 8,500 low-income adult Kansans.
“As written, the bill would give some of the poorest Kansans financial assistance toward the purchase of their own health insurance,” Sebelius wrote. “This could mean as many as 24,000 Kansans who don”t have insurance now could be covered by 2012.”
In the first year of the premium assistance program, coverage would be provided to adults earning up to 50 percent of federal poverty guidelines. At the end of a four-year phase in, all Kansans earning 100 percent of poverty or less would be eligible for coverage under the program.
Currently in Kansas, children in low-income families earning up to 200 percent of poverty are covered by Medicaid and the State Children”s Health Insurance program, SCHIP. But Kansas is one of the strictest states in the nation when it comes to adult eligibility for Medicaid, limiting assistance to those who make 37 percent of poverty or less.
The bill also contains provisions aimed at helping small businesses provide health coverage to their workers. A favorable conference committee report on the bill awaits action in each chamber when lawmakers return.
“This package is a good start toward a healthier Kansas,” Sebelius wrote.
But the governor also used the e-mail to criticize legislators for failing to act on her so-called Healthy Five proposal, which would expand the number of children ages 5 and under who qualify for state-subsidized health coverage under SCHIP by increasing the eligibility limit to 300 percent of poverty, which, for a family of three is $49,800 a year.
“I am sorely disappointed some in the Legislature continue to ignore my proposal for secure health care for our youngest Kansans,” the governor wrote.
Many Republican leaders said they opposed the governor”s proposal because they feared it would dramatically increase the cost of the SCHIP program and encourage some families who could afford private coverage to instead opt for the public program.
The e-mail is the latest indication that the governor intends to play an active role in the crafting of more comprehensive health reform legislation for the 2008 session. During a speech earlier this month at a Topeka hospital she made it clear that a universal health care plan that extends coverage to all Kansans remains her goal.
“It”s a high priority of mine,” she said. “We need to make sure we begin the process this year and then continue on.”
In addition to its other provisions, SB 11 charges the Kansas Health Policy Authority with developing a wide reaching health reform proposal for the 2008 Legislature to consider. Marcia Nielsen, KHPA executive director, has said the plan will be completed by early November.
Also Wednesday, Nielsen made available to Kansas media
a column expressing her support for SB 11.
-Jim McLean is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
jmclean@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 110.