By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 15
Unable to get on Medicaid, some low-income families are turning to the state”s safety-net clinics for health care.
“In the six months after you had to have a birth certificate to get on Medicaid, our number of uninsured children went up 42 percent,” said Krista Postai, chief executive officer at the Community Mental Health Center of Southeast Kansas in Pitttsburg.
“The volume of services we provide went up 68 percent,” Postai said. “That tells me the people we”re seeing are sicker.”
The increases at her clinic, she said, coincided with the state enforcing a federal rule that, effective July 1, required low-income families to show proof of their children”s citizenship and identity before being added to the state”s Medicaid rolls.
Testifying before a joint meeting of the Senate budget and public health and welfare committees Thursday, Postai said it”s safe to assume that the low-income families are tapping the state”s emergency rooms as well.
That, she said, is sure drive up the state”s health care costs.
According to the Kansas Health Policy Authority, 2,000 children have been denied or dropped from Medicaid because their parents wouldn”t or couldn”t come up with the needed documents. Another 18,000 are in limbo because parents flooded the agency”s clearinghouse with letters, faxes and telephone calls, causing a two- and three-month backlog that could take a year to clear out.
The vast majority of the children in these families are U.S. citizens and will be eligible for Medicaid once their parents order and receive copies of their birth certificates, predicted Marcia Nielsen, executive director at the health policy authority.
These children, Nielsen said, represent a “hidden tax” because the state
directly or indirectly
often ends up paying for their care.
Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, asked what legislators could do reduce the backlog at the clearinghouse.
“What the state is doing is shifting the burden onto the emergency rooms and that”s just not right,” he said. “(Nielsen) is right. This is a hidden tax, but we”re the ones who are causing it.”
The Senate Ways and Means Committee last week agreed to set aside an additional $500,000 for additional staff at the clearinghouse. The House Appropriations Committee has expressed similar support but delayed making a specific recommendation until end-of-session budget deliberations.
The committees also heard testimony on grassroots efforts to enroll more families in HealthWave, the state”s health insurance program for low-income families.
Under the HealthWave umbrella, Medicaid covers children in families at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level; State Children”s Health Insurance Program
better known as SCHIP
covers those between 101 percent and 200 percent of the poverty level.
Billie Hall, president and chief executive officer of the non-profit Sunflower Foundation of Topeka, said the foundation and Kansas Action for Children were looking at ways to let parents sign up for HealthWave when they enroll their children in school reduced-price lunch programs.
Pat Cameron, of Inter-Faith Ministries in Wichita, discussed a Web-based tool his organization is developing to help people apply for a variety of government assistance programs, including HealthWave.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.