Expand Medicaid, strengthen families

For more than a decade, we have worked tirelessly to persuade our state legislators to expand Medicaid and help the tens of thousands of hardworking Kansans like me who find themselves in the health insurance gap.

I'm tired of waiting. Expanding Medicaid would bring health care coverage to hardworking individuals in our state, return Kansans' tax dollars and support rural hospitals.

This cause is personal to me. My daughter was born with a serious congenital heart defect and is missing a part of her neurological anatomy. In 2016, she was diagnosed with chronic lung disease. She's undergone 21 surgeries, four of which were open-heart procedures. She has three brothers as well. Four kids would keep any family busy, but with the extra time and energy I need to devote every week to my children's health care, as a single mom my hands are full.

Six months ago, I experienced an unexpected and unplanned nearly fatal ectopic pregnancy. Thanks to efforts by the American Heart Association and others who worked with the Legislature to extend post-partum Medicaid coverage to 12 months, I was able to receive one year of Medicaid coverage after my pregnancy. I work part-time, which means I do not work enough hours to qualify for employee benefit coverage.

So I will once again be uninsured in six months.

I make too much money to qualify for KanCare, but I don't make enough to receive assistance through the health insurance marketplace that was created under the Affordable Care Act. I am one of the tens of thousands of Kansans who fall in the Medicaid coverage gap, forced to choose between life-saving care and putting food on the table for my family.

I tell my kids that their health should always be a priority, but I don't model that behavior. I don't go to the doctor when I should, because I can't afford it. It's terrifying to think that I may be one illness or one trip to the emergency room away from keeping my family together.

Access to health coverage makes it easier to work and succeed in today's economy. Too many Kansas families like mine without insurance are forced to skip preventative treatments or timely early detection screenings that could save lives and taxpayer dollars. Helping our neighbors get health care is not only the right thing to do, it's also the financially responsible thing to do. Medicaid expansion would save the state millions of dollars and would also return billions of dollars to Kansas from Washington, D.C.

These savings matter to voters, and it's money that 40 other states and the District of Columbia are already getting. Kansas is losing out.

Medicaid expansion would benefit hardworking Kansans like me and my families. Every additional day that individuals like me go without adequate health care coverage is another day that our families are at risk.

Expansion would bring our tax dollars home and put Kansans first by helping our uninsured neighbors get access to medical care.

Melissa Dodge is the co-coordinator of her local CHD Families Association and also works closely with the American Heart Association.