A Republican leader is calling on Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to open to the public meetings with officials advising her on Medicaid expansion.
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who has been a staunch opponent of expansion, released a statement this week saying the meetings should be public because expansion will cost millions in state funds.
“The governor owes the taxpayers an opportunity to participate in the working group,” Hawkins said. “In keeping with the Legislature’s renewed focus on transparency, I’m calling on Governor Kelly to open the meetings of her new working group to the press and the public, and to allow an appropriate time of public comment. This process should not take place behind closed doors.”
Kelly announced the appointment of the Medicaid expansion working group on Jan. 24 and said she expected the group to finalize a proposal by Jan. 29. Ashley All, a spokeswoman for Kelly, said Friday that the group likely will have no meetings.
All characterized the work group as more of a list of people who are advising Kelly on the issue than a formal task force. It includes a state legislator from each party, as well as leaders of groups that represent Kansas hospitals, doctors, safety net clinics and mental health centers.
“The purpose of this informal working group is to provide input on the governor’s legislative proposal to expand KanCare — the state’s Medicaid program,” All said via email. “A few of these individuals met early in the transition and some of the group met briefly before the announcement. They are simply providing advice. We are not planning on another meeting at this time.”
All said Kelly and Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers plan to travel the state to gather additional feedback about expansion over the next month. She said the work group members were “just helping fine-tune legislation” that Kelly would introduce publicly, and she hopes the Legislature will then agree to vet it in open committee meetings with public testimony.
Any gatherings of members of the work group after it was formed may be subject to the Kansas Open Meetings Act. State and local government agencies fall under the act, as do “most groups formed by such entities in order to assist them with public business,” according to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on whether the act pertains to advisory groups established by the executive branch, saying the office “cannot provide counsel, legal advice or research to private citizens, businesses or groups” because it represents state agencies.
The open meetings act doesn’t require government agencies to take comments from the public at their meetings.
The meetings of some other health-related advisory boards in Kansas have been open in the past.
Members of the public who registered in advance were allowed to attend meetings of a task force that Kelly’s predecessor, Republican Jeff Colyer, formed last year to find solutions to the abuse of opioids and other drugs.
A board formed to advise the Legislature on a state-run stem cell therapy center at the University of Kansas Health System has deemed its meetings open under state law and allowed a Star reporter to attend last year. But that board was formally established by state law.
Expansion is a feature of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. It extends Medicaid eligibility to everyone who makes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $34,638 a year for a family of four. The federal government pays 90 percent of the cost.
“Medicaid expansion will help every single Kansas community, which is why 77 percent of Kansans support it,” Kelly said. “It will create jobs, support rural hospitals, keep our tax dollars here in our state, and make Kansas families stronger.”
In Kansas it’s estimated that 150,000 people could gain coverage through expansion. Hospital groups say it would also make it easier for their members to stay in the black and keep from closing, especially in rural areas.
Kansas and Missouri currently have some of the strictest Medicaid eligibility income limits in the country and are two of the 14 states — generally dominated by Republicans — that have refused expansion.
The Kansas Legislature approved expansion in 2017, but then-Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed it, and the Legislature fell just short of the votes needed to override the veto. This year’s Legislature is more conservative.
Expansion opponents say the state can’t afford its share, and the costs will crowd out resources for the groups that have traditionally made up the vast majority of Medicaid recipients: children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with disabilities.
“The decision of whether to expand Medicaid by adding the health care expenses of tens-of-thousands of healthy, mobile adults to the backs of taxpayers is a significant one,” Hawkins said in his statement.
Hawkins also said the Legislature “has taken significant steps to increase transparency” in its own operations. Some progress has been made on that score since The Star ran a series of stories in 2017 on pervasive secrecy within Kansas government. But the record is mixed.
Last year the Kansas House of Representatives ended the practice of allowing bills to be introduced anonymously, but the Senate continues to allow it.
The House also enacted rules to better track “gut-and-go” amendments — when the entire contents of a bill are eliminated and replaced with completely different legislation. But such amendments are still allowed.
Legislators’ votes in committees and preliminary floor votes are also still not recorded, unless they request their vote be recorded.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s Medicaid expansion work group:
▪ Tom Bell, president and CEO, Kansas Hospital Association
▪ Rep. Susan Concannon, Beloit Republican
▪ Denise Cyzman, CEO, Community Care Network of Kansas
▪ Cathy Harding, president and CEO, Wyandotte Health Foundation
▪ April Holman, executive director, Alliance for a Healthy Kansas
▪ Kyle Kessler, executive director, Association of Community Mental Health Centers
▪ Dr. Lee Norman, interim secretary, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
▪ Jon Rosell, executive director, Kansas Medical Society
▪ Michael Stephens, president and CEO, Sunflower Health Plan
▪ Suzanne Wikle, senior policy analyst, Center for Law and Social Policy
▪ Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, Kansas City, Kan., Democrat
This story was originally published January 25, 2019 2:34 PM.
