Brownback's duplicity on Medicaid expansion
Yael T. AbouhalkahGov. Sam Brownback says he is only looking after the best interests of taxpayers as he resists efforts to spend more state tax money on keeping poor Kansans healthy.
Either that, or he doesn’t want to help poor people get access to better health care.
Let’s look at the evidence:
On Friday, a state-bought study said it would cost an extra $600 million over the next decade to expand Medicaid and other health insurance plans for low-income residents, if the state followed the rules of the federal Affordable Care Act.
That’s an average of $60 million a year to help make Kansans healthier. Why is the governor resisting calls to do that? Let the governor explain, through a statement released by his spokeswoman:
“This impact would be significant and would directly affect the ability of the state to fund other core responsibilities like K-12 education and public safety.”
Well, let’s see if the governor was speaking out last year just as strongly when state legislators were getting ready to cut the income tax for well-off Kansans, which would reduce tax revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Let’s see if Brownback was standing up strong for schools and public safety and other “core responsibilities” and telling the Legislature it was going to have to rethink that policy.
But wait. That’s not what happened at all.
Instead, the governor championed the tax deductions. Why? Because he claimed they wouldn’t hurt the state’s budget, that more people would move to Kansas and that, in reality, more tax revenue would be created by cutting taxes and boosting the state economy.
That’s interesting: When it came to giving tax breaks to the well off, Brownback tried to look at both sides.
So why isn’t he doing that with the potential for Medicaid expansion?
Why isn’t Sam Brownback looking at the positive stuff that will happen if 200,000 more people have medical care in the next decade?
Why isn’t Sam Brownback looking at the positive aspects of having fewer people going to emergency rooms, and fewer people being a financial burden on those who have private insurance?
Why isn’t Sam Brownback pointing out that - if people get better health care coverage - they can get jobs and contribute tax revenues to the state of Kansas?
Brownback needs to provide some answers on his reluctance to expand Medicaid.
Because right now, it appears he and other Republicans don’t want to help low-income residents get health care coverage so they can have a better chance of contributing to society.
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoMaybe you might consider REPORTING on the plan that replaces the expansion of medicaid instead of stating that it doesn’t exist. You know it does. It’s in the details of the application for exemption. Why do you lie? Are you that insecure in your position?
You don’t agree with it. Fine. How could you when anything but a big government solution isn’t a solution at all? And moreover, why does any solution that doesn’t march in lock-step with yours mean that the proponent of the other plan just doesn’t give two poops about poor people? That’s a grade-school attitude.
“You don’t care about poor people.” This is like page 2 of the playbook, right behind the race card. It must really stink to go around with such hatred for anyone whose belief system is any different than your own.
Rick Adams
3 months, 1 week agoHow about you share it with us Matt ?
I think I follow YTAs information when he presents actual data from both events - cutting taxes … gonna bring in
mo money cutting aid to needy ... wouldnt be prudent ….Brownback has no plan other than to give to rich.
Mark Hastert
3 months, 1 week agoWell if Brownie can deliver better care to as many people in need, at a lower cost, pay the care providers decent reimbursement, and still add a layer of bureaucracy and a layer of profit that would be a major feat. He fails to explain how he’s going to keep up with the population growth and aging. As other articles say much of the Medicare money goes to “dual eligibles” (old people in poverty) If he thinks he can achieve all that he’s using that same magic math that Paul Ryan does e.g. 10-2=12. But if he really can pull it off I wish him all the luck in the world. After all they do it in Canada, England, Germany, most of Europe but wait, they have….
And, for the record, the Medicare expansion’s aim is to provide care to MORE people at or near poverty.
Reginald Thornton
3 months, 1 week agoI think Yael is right. Brownback doesn’t care about poor people. I think Brownback hates poor people. How is someone actually elected Governor without us knowing his utter lack of regard for poor people. I mean, it’s not like the application process is as shoddy as for “KC Star editorial” writer. Speaking of which, I think Yael hates white people…..
Mark Hastert
3 months, 1 week ago“I think Yael is right. Brownback doesn’t care about poor people. I think Brownback hates poor people.”
Wow! Reggie & I agree on something. Given that the big thrust of Brownie’s initiatives benefit the wealthy and corporations at the expense of the middle and lower classes (it’s all 2nd generation trickle down) it’s a fair conclusion.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoAll the libs are jealous of KS because it is implementing conservative principles. KS is going to rock economically….
We need people who currently don’t qualify for Medicaid to move to IL. You know, the bankrupt state that is embracing zerocare….
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoBoy, do you miss the point.
YTA says Brownback needs to “provide some answers” re medicaid expansion. The assumption, of course, is that he has not provided those answers. He has in fact laid out an alternate plan as best described in his Obamacare waiver request. But YTA not only implies he has no answers but that the REASON he doesn’t is because he simply doesn’t care about the poor. This is the worst kind of demagoguery and should be mocked.
This Curly Joe-like stooge of an opinion writer is either oblivious that these “answers” are out there, or he is a lying, manipulative ideologue who will stoop to the lowest level to sway opinion to his elitist beliefs. I’m inclined toward the latter but either way he proves his joke status.
Like I said, disagree about the substance. But why lie about what is out there unless you lack any confidence about your position?
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoCan someone explain to me why we have reached a point in this society where the “poor” and “middle class” only suffer decline as a result of improvement in the lives of the rich and vice-versa? Cannot both see improvement or decline depending upon governmental economic policies? Has this not historically been the case? It used to be that a “rising tide will raise all ships,” but now we are perfectly content with citing wealth-gap numbers. Would we be happier if EVERYBODY is poorer as long as there are no rich? Are we really that petty?
Why can we sit and watch 50 years of redistributionist policies crush poor communities into dust, with literally trillions of dollars transferred down the economic ladder, and yet we are told we have not done enough? How long will we hobble poor communities at the alter of liberal feelings?
That we cannot consider tax cuts in Kansas as being anything other than class warfare speaks to how far we have fallen and why we may never return to the broad economic strength that our country has displayed.
Mike Arb
3 months, 1 week agoMatt, surely you don’t doubt the opinion or wisdom of the sef ascribed smartest man in the midwest, Yael Abouhalkah do you?
Matt Henry
3 months, 1 week agoMidwest? When did he limit his intelligence to only the greatest in the midwest?