Newsletter - March 24, 2019
My wife Carol joined me in Topeka this week for the Kansas Prayer Breakfast. We also saw Delvin Kinser, News Director for KJIL and his wife Rhonda at the breakfast. The program featured David McAlvany, CEO of McAlvany Financial Companies. He is a featured speaker on national television programs including CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business News, and Bloomberg. David also hosts a weekly radio program with commentary from world leaders, bankers, economists, and renowned investors.
In his book, The Intentional Legacy, David shares his own personal failures and successes as a “Prodigal Son,” who returned home to start over with purpose. He presents a strategy for “reverse engineering” your life and legacy. Most importantly, David presents a redemptive ethic for family prosperity based on love, forgiveness, and non-contingent relationships.
It was great having Stormy Heger and Marquis Brown as pages this week.
I enjoyed participating in the Leprechaun 5K Challenge on March 16
th. It was a beautiful day to be outside. Lots of walkers and runners. A big “Thank You” to the City of Liberal, Ronna Stump and her staff for making these events happen.
Floor Votes
2082: The House passed HB 2082 this week making it legal for Kansas pharmacists to assist their patients with injectable prescriptions. There are several drugs that require an injection and they are difficult for many people to inject themselves. This bill allows a trusted pharmacist to assist a customer in injecting a prescription at the pharmacy. I supported this measure to help make sure Kansans can get the medication they need.
2041: This bill encourages lifesaving organ donations by prohibiting life insurance companies from discriminating against living organ donors, such as individuals who donate a kidney. This legislation protects potential donors by making insurance companies cannot treat them differently.
2066: Medicaid Expansion
Last week, the House voted to pass a $900 million Medicaid Expansion plan. Medicaid Expansion, which is funded in part by federal tax dollars, has been a very difficult and divisive at both the federal and state level, as well as locally. Using a procedure called a “gut and go,” some members of the House opted to force consideration of the expansion issue. Following a lengthy discussion and several amendments, the Democrats and some Republicans voted to move the measure to the Senate.
No one knows exactly what Medicaid Expansion will cost our state. Some proponents of the measure say expansion is “budget neutral.” Others estimate it will cost anywhere from $28 million (Governor) to $50 million per year (Kansas Health Institute). However, no state has accurately met its cost estimates for expansion. All of them have underestimated the fiscal impact. I could not vote to commit our state to a program that has an unknown fiscal impact, especially when that plan had not been vetted through the committee process. Kansans have learned the hard way before of the unintended consequences that often come with passing unvetted legislation on the floor.
Besides my concerns about the long-term costs of this program, I am also concerned about the realities of crowd-out for Kansans who are already covered by Medicaid. In Kansas, we already cover seniors, the disabled, children in low-income families, low-income pregnant women and very low-income adults under Medicaid - some of whom are on waiting lists for services. The expansion plan that just passed the House would make an estimated 135,000 non-disabled adults eligible for coverage. Seward County – like many communities across the state - has lacked an adequate number of providers that accept Medicaid who can serve existing patients on the program. Without addressing the shortage of providers, expansion will compound that issue.
Medicaid expansion has been advertised as a magic pill that will save rural hospitals. While expansion will bring in additional dollars, the lion’s share of the money goes to urban areas, not rural hospitals. In fact, the Kansas Hospital Association has told the media there are other things – like reversing recent federal cuts in Medicare payments - that would do more to assist our rural hospitals.
Health care is a complex problem and no single policy will address all of the challenges we face, not even expansion. We should use extreme caution when expanding a government program because they are rarely reduced, and they often do not contain incentives to ensure improvement or better health outcomes for those who use the program.
Happy Anniversary Carol
My wife and I celebrated our 33
rd anniversary this week. I got home from Topeka around 7:00 pm so we celebrated it watching TV on the couch together. We like simple pleasures. She keeps me and our whole family grounded. She is my rock. She is solid. Here’s to my wife Carol.
"Marriage is the most natural state of man …. the state in which you will find solid happiness." Ben Franklin
Constituent Services
Please reach out to me any time I can assist you with a state agency concern. I do ask that you send the request to me by email. This ensures that I get the information correctly to the agency we are working with. You can reach me when I’m in Topeka by email
Shannon.francis@house.ks.gov, by phone (785) 296-7466, or by mail at 300 SW 10
th Avenue, 274-W, Topeka, KS 66612. My office at the Capitol is 274W, second floor west wing.
