Canidates talk medicaid

Oct. 17--Tim Hodge (D-North Newton) and Steve Kelly (R-Newton) spent time on a stage at Kidron Bethel Village, a retirement home in North Newton, answering questions Oct. 16 from a standing room only crowd as they campaigned to be the District 72 representative in the Kansas House.

Not unpredictably, the one of the first questions from the audience was about Medicaid expansion in Kansas.

The state of Kansas has refused federal funds to expand the program -- and that has, in the eyes of the question asker Wednesday -- created some problems for nursing homes, hospitals and healthcare consumers.

Incumbent Tim Hodge laid out why that refusal is a problem for the state of Kansas.

"We have lost close to $3 billion that could be floating around in our economy in th form of salaries for nurses and other help at our hospitals and nursing homes," Hodge said. "... I have been clear that I want it expanded. You go through Newton and you will find people who need healthcare. One broken arm is a bankruptcy for some folks and they need help."

A bill to expand the program in Kansas made it through the House of Representatives, but was vetoed by then Gov. Sam Brownback. A second attempt fell short.

As a member of the Kansas Hospital Association and a health committee appointed by the governor, Kelly helped create the expansion bill.

"I know what is in it," Kelly said. "... We took the lead in medicaid expansion and I testified before two committees on this. I was Gov. Brownback's office on this three times on this. I know what it means to our state. It is very important."

Kelly said Brownback was a leader with a good heart, but that he was not a good administrator -- comparing the former Governor to former President Jimmy Carter.

"A good man but not a good administrator," Kelly said. "I shared this with him, and I meant it in a good way, not a negative. I said 'governor ... one of my favorite proverbs is that a wise person changes their mind but a fool never does.' ... I tried everything I could to get that through. I am hopeful in this next session we can get it through."

Hodge shared his frustration with the process, and the issue at hand.

"It boggles my mind because we all pay our federal taxes and it goes to Washington. They use it to fund California's medicaid program. We don't take it because we are so principled that we should not do that. It is not a complicated situation. Kansas has 2.9 million people out of the 330 million U.S. citizens. We are less than one percent of the population. We are not going to be the population that breaks the U.S. budget."

Kelly told the group Oct. 16 that expanding Medicaid will not be a silver bullet answer to the healthcare issues in Kansas.

"It is not the answer to all of our questions," Kelly said. "If we expand medicaid, do you know that there are still 100,000 Kansans who will not have insurance? We need to look at something more comprehensive. I would like to see our state look at plans that address everyone. There are a lot of models to do that. I am very much for Medicaid expansion."

Other questions the canidates faced included their stance on the death penalty, sales taxes on food and general tax questions.

The two also participated in a forum at the Meridian Center Oct. 17.

The Kansan has requested information from the candidates to publish full profiles prior to the election.

___

(c)2018 The Newton Kansan, Kan.

Visit The Newton Kansan, Kan. at www.thekansan.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.