By Dave Ranney and Jim McLean
KHI News Service
LAWRENCE, Jan. 23
The board of the Kansas Health Policy Authority this afternoon will put together a task force to help lawmakers figure out how best to reform the state”s health care system.
“We are so
not
going to drop the ball on this,” said Marcia Nielsen, the health policy authority”s executive director.
Less certain is whether the task force will endorse Gov. Kathleen Sebelius” call for universal health care.
“I don”t know that we”ve had that discussion yet,” said board chairwoman Connie Hubbell. “We need a definition. There are several ways to define universal health care.”
Board members gathered Monday at the Eldridge Hotel in downtown Lawrence for the start of a two-day retreat. They meet again today.
In her Jan. 10 State of the State address, Sebelius challenged legislators to work with her and the health policy authority “to develop a plan this year to achieve universal coverage.”
The health policy authority last year endorsed a set of “vision principles” that include every Kansan having access to “patient-centered care” at “the right place and the right price.”
But the board, Hubbell said, isn”t sure if its access-to-care principle is synonymous with universal access.
In some states Massachusetts and California, for example the term implies that everyone would be required to have health insurance, not unlike they”re required to have car insurance. But in other states, everyone having access to insurance meets the definition.
Sebelius met with the board for about 30 minutes Monday. She challenged authority members to develop a plan to achieve universal coverage and build public support for it.
Acknowledging that reaching the universal coverage goal would be a multi-stage process, the governor assured the group that she would “have no hesitation” to introduce budget amendments to support whatever health-reform “building blocks” a board-appointed task force might propose.
These proposals, she said, might include helping small businesses insure their employees, redirecting the state”s health-care dollars, or doing more to insure parents whose children are eligible for HealthWave, the state”s health insurance program for low- and modest income families.
Sebelius has proposed expanding HealthWave eligibility to 300 percent of federal poverty guideline. It”s now at 200 percent of the guideline.
Since the governor”s State of the State address, both the House and Senate have formed special task forces on health-care reform.
“This is always a major issue for us, front and center,” said Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton.
The formation of the task forces and the governor”s challenge took board members by surprise.
“We”ve been overtaken by events,” said board vice chairman Joe Tilghman.
Board members spent much of Monday afternoon wrestling with how to assemble a task force to advise a Legislature that”s launched task forces of its own.
Their deliberations were compounded by health policy authority staff insisting they cannot take on additional duties without more employees.
The governor”s budget proposal allows for only half the requested positions.
“If we are going to take on a larger issue like universal access we will have to reprioritize some of our current activities,” Hubbell said. “We simply do not have the staff to take on something this big.”
Currently, the health policy authority oversees the state”s Medicaid and HealthWave programs and the state employees” health plan.
Morris and House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, did not dispute the need for additional staff.
“There”s no question the health policy authority needs more staff,” Neufeld said.
Dave Ranney and Jim McLean are staff writers for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansas. They can be reached at 785-233-5443.