By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, March 13
A national health policy expert who spent Tuesday talking with top policymakers here, including the governor and key legislators, said he was impressed with the pace and tenor of the reform discussions here.
“I”m very impressed with the commitment to make the Kansas health-care system serve more people,” said Len Nichols, director of the health policy program for the New America Foundation. “It”s bipartisan and the process has clearly engaged, committee chairs, leaders of both the House and Senate. You”ve got all the players engaged. It”s at an early stage of the process, but people seem genuinely focused on practical solutions that might work in Kansas and
at this stage anyway
seem open minded about alternatives they might not have thought of themselves. Is there money for (major reform in Kansas) this year? No. But I would say there”s a willingness to consider it seriously in the next 18 months.”
Nichols is a highly sought-after adviser and speaker on health-care issues. He said he has been consulted by both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. He is familiar with reform efforts across the U.S., including those in Massachusetts, California and nearby Colorado and Oklahoma.
When Marcia Nielsen, executive director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, introduced Nichols before one of his presentations Tuesday she said: “When Len Nichols comes to speak you get downright googly-eyed, especially if you”re a health economist.”
Nichols said in his private meetings here he sensed that Democratic legislators, after hearing his points, became more accepting of the idea that public money could be used successfully to subsidize private insurance premiums. He said Republican lawmakers who talked with him seemed to show “more acceptance of the moral case” for extending health insurance to the uninsured.
In addition to private meetings with top policymakers, Nichols also made two public presentations Tuesday; one was to those who attended the Health for All Kansans Steering Committee meeting. The other was at the Statehouse for lawmakers and the public. He gave the same presentation in both locations. In each presentation he said an insurance connector or exchange could be helpful in extending coverage to the uninsured, but he cautioned that a connector could not work without mandated participation of some sort.
He also stressed the moral obligation to assist the uninsured, noting that 18,000 uninsured Americans died last year for want of medical care.
Denying health insurance to those who don”t have it, he said, was like “denying food to the hungry. Moses, Jesus and Mohammed would not approve.”
Nichols also said he believed extending health insurance to all Americans was a step toward focusing national attention on solving the broader problem of soaring health-care costs.
“If we don”t learn to get value in health care, then none of us will be able to afford it,” he said of the ever-escalating costs.
The New America Foundation is a public policy think tank formed in 1999 to bring new ideas to the forefront. On the health front, the foundation aims to expand health insurance coverage to all Americans while reining in costs and improving efficiency of the health care system. New America prides itself on promoting centrist policies. Its president and founder is Ted Halstead, co-author of the book, “The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics.”
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.