By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 20
Members of the Kansas Health Policy Authority board talked Tuesday about intensifying their efforts to convince Congress to ease a new rule that is preventing thousands of women and children from accessing health care services through the Medicaid program.
“You talk about a hot button issue, this is a hot button issue,” said board member Rob Kaplan, referring to a rule that requires Medicaid applicants to have documents proving their citizenship. “It might be an opportunity to make a statement and to set an example for the rest of the country.”
Specifically, Kaplan, a senior director for the New York city-based Goldman Sachs Group, urged Marcia Nielsen, executive director of the health policy authority, to enlist Gov. Kathleen Sebelius” help in lobbying Congress and Bush administration officials.
Contacted for a response, Sebelius said while the state has a responsibility to ensure that only those who are eligible for government services receive them, Congress has failed to provide the necessary resources to do that in an orderly way.
“What we know now is that there are too many Kansans eligible for help who because of these new rigid rules aren”t getting it,” Sebelius said through her spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran.
The new rule was imposed July 1, 2006 to prevent undocumented immigrants from signing up for Medicaid, a health care program for low-income families jointly funded by states and the federal government.
But officials in Kansas and several other states say most of the individuals kept off of the Medicaid rolls are citizens who have difficulty producing the necessary documents.
In Kansas, the citizenship requirement is thought to be the primary reason for an enrollment decline of 20,000 people in the Medicaid program.
Some members of Congress have introduced legislation to ensure that infants born in the United States will continue to qualify for Medicaid services regardless of the citizenship status of the mother. But Chris Riley, the chief of staff for one of the authors of the 2006 bill, said in a recent New York Times article that his boss, Congressman Nathan Deal, R-Georgia, “will vigorously fight repeal of the provision.” Riley went on to say that the new rule “has saved taxpayers money.”
In the same Times article, Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the agency isn”t “aware of any data that shows there are significant barriers to enrollment.”
Andy Allison, KHPA deputy director, said assertions that the rule change has saved money without affecting enrollment “reflect a profound misunderstanding of the impact of this policy.”
Also, KHPA Executive Director Marcia Nielsen bristled at recent reports documenting that the rule has affected Kansas more than surrounding states.
“If a state is not running into this problem it has not implemented these regulations,” Nielsen said. “We are following the letter of the law.”
The health policy authority has asked legislators for money to hire additional staff at the Kansas Family Medical Clearinghouse, a Topeka facility that processes about 85 percent of the state”s Medicaid and State Children”s Health Insurance Program applications. But Nielsen said even with the additional staff, “It will take a full year to get rid of the backlog.”
-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.