By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Jan.
8
Last year, lawmakers set aside $3.5 million for 32 clinics that care for the state”s ever-rising number of poor and uninsured Kansans.
That”s $1 million more than the previous year, but it”s still not enough, according to clinic officials.
“The clinic in Emporia (Flint Hills Community Health Center) sees 7,000 patients a year,” said Karla Finnell, executive director at the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved.
“We have people driving 150 miles to the Marion Clinic here in Topeka,” Finnell said. “We can”t keep up with demand.”
One-fifth of the mothers who had babies in Crawford County last year were patients at Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, a safety-net clinic that serves Crawford, Cherokee and Labette counties.
“We had 5,970 patients and 14,951 encounters last year,” said Krista Postai, chief operating officer at the Pittsburg clinic.
“This year, we’ve had 8,636 patients and 28,399 encounters. In other words, we’ve doubled our encounters in one year,” she said. “We’re growing phenomenally, we’re at capacity, we’re building a new facility. And yet I can tell you we haven’t even begun to touch the need that’s out there.
“We have people drive here from all over southeast Kansas
Coffeyville, Independence
because they can’t find a doctor who’ll take Medicaid or they don’t have insurance,” Postai said. “We’re their only option.”
KAMU plans to ask the 2007 Legislature for an additional $2.5 million:
* $1.35 million to expand existing services;
* $500,000 to expand dental services at eight clinics and begin services at four more;
* $500,000 to help launch new clinics in Hays, Independence, Wamego, and other communities;
* $150,000 to recruit health professionals dentists and dental hygienists especially to underserved communities.
Currently, state funds account for about 10 percent of the 26 clinics” operational budgets. The remaining six clinics do not receive state funds.
The
Kansas Health Policy Authority
has endorsed the association”s proposal.
Whether lawmakers go along with the requested
increase remains to be seen.
Last
month, a survey released by the Minneapolis-based
United Health Foundation
found that only seven states had lower percentages of uninsured than Kansas.
In Kansas, 10.8 percent of the population about 300,000 people lacked health insurance.
“I worry that when people hear that Kansas has a fairly low number of uninsured 11 percent, compared to 26 percent in some other states they think there”s not much more that needs to be done,” Finnell said.
“But what they don”t realize is that in a rural state like Kansas, our 12 percent may have less access to care than their 26 percent,” she said.
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.