Affordable health care
John Schlageck
Saturday, March 24, 2007
All Kansans should have access to high quality health care. People of our state have heard this refrain for decades and each year it comes up in the Kansas Legislature.
This session is no different. Recently, members of the Kansas House Republican task force on health care unveiled their plan to help more Kansans get the medical coverage they need.
Task force members have developed KanCare. This is a four-part health care plan that uses market forces to expand coverage, limit costs, improve quality and guarantee long-term stability for all Kansans, according to the members.
The first key to the task-force plan involves making commercial insurance more affordable. Allowing consumers to use pre-tax dollars to pay for health care will do this. It also calls for expanding the commercial market and encouraging more insurers and plans which will hold costs through competition.
The second key will help the uninsured or those on Medicaid find stable health insurance. Examples include individuals between jobs who are without insurance. They can use vouchers/tax credits to keep insurance. It will also provide seed money to encourage association plans targeted to small communities, business groups and ethnic organizations. Also, children with Medicaid can be placed on their parent’s family plan with vouchers or credits.
Medicaid reform, the new MediKan is the third key of the House Republican task force plan. The main goal here is to preserve and stabilize a safety net.
This is designed to work with the federal government for new programs to eliminate waste and fraud, help seniors get more home health care rather than nursing homes, and provide wellness initiatives. MediKan will expand choices for doctors and health plans and gives the state more options in case contractors have problems.
This third key will also give patients a choice from many benefit packages with some for specially designed needs. Another option is to use consumer-driven health plans. With these, Medicaid recipients get a health opportunity account. The state puts money into a patient to use for co-pays, glasses, weight-loss programs, etc.
Strengthening charity care for a smaller pool of uninsured is the fourth key to the House plan. This is designed to reduce the number of uninsured, strengthen free-care clinics and create incentives for providers to give more free care.
Having rolled out this health care proposal this late in the 2007 session, it appears the chance of action on such a plan is 50/50 at best. It will probably be turned over to an interim committee and worked this summer.
No doubt this plan is a step in the right direction. It’s consistent with what farmers, ranchers and independent business people would like to see in a state health care program.
This plan addresses challenges facing self-employed citizens who don’t receive health care as a benefit, and are required to pay for such insurance out of their own pockets. That is expensive.
The proposed House plan is fairly convenient and is supposed to lower costs while providing several options. It is also portable, especially for those people who may be in a position of changing jobs without health care.
Finally it offers health saving’s accounts which are a good component of any insurance plan. It’s one plan that’s been rolled out to help provide high-quality, affordable health care for Kansans. It deserves careful consideration and a good hard look.
F John Schlageck has been writing about farming and ranching in Kansas for more than 25 years. He is the managing editor of “Kansas Living,” a quarterly magazine dedicated to agriculture and rural life in Kansas.