Lots of declarations are made on the campaign trail and town hall meetings, but when asked to declare their principles on key state budget and education issues, most Kansas legislators wouldn’t respond. Kansas Policy Institute asked all 165 Kansas legislators to respond to a 6-question multiple choice online survey between January 13 and January 30 but only 34 responded; some … Read More
Guest Post: A Medicaid Expansion Offer the States Should Refuse
This piece was published originally by National Review Online ( ©2016 National Review, used with permission). The author is John Daniel Davidson. Mr. Davidson is the Director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin. In the wake of Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards’s announcement last week that his state would expand Medicaid … Read More
KPI and THF on Obamacare and Kansas
By Nina Owcharenko, Ed Haislmaier and Patrick Parkes. It remains one of the more contentious questions surrounding implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) in Kansas: Should the state adopt the law’s expansion of Medicaid? Doing so would fundamentally transform the program—shifting it from one which principally covers poor children and the disabled to one which covers able-bodied, … Read More
Medicaid Expansion Debate Should Deal With Facts, Not Falsehoods
A recent guest column by Ken Johnson purporting to make the case for Medicaid expansion is actually an odd collection of false and misleading claims put forth to justify a large expansion of a government program and benefit the business he runs. Mr. Johnson said that an expansion would bring $400 million into Kansas. But, this would happen at an … Read More
2015 Legislative Wrap-up
Kansas Policy Institute President Dave Trabert summarizes the major accomplishments of the 2015 Kansas Legislature including changes to: K-12 school funding, renewable energy mandates, tax credit scholarships, property tax reform and avoidance of Medicaid expansion.
Patrick Parkes on Medicaid Expansion & Obamacare
Kansas residents who are already paying more for health insurance will also pay much more to fund an expansion of Medicaid. Patrick Parkes, a fiscal policy analyst at the Kansas Policy Institute, talks about research KPI and other organizations have done into the costs and outcomes of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act popularly known as ObamaCare.
If Quality Healthcare Is the Goal, Medicaid Expansion Isn’t the Answer
Next week’s legislative agenda in Topeka will continue the debate in Kansas about possible expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act—more commonly known as Obamacare. A KPI blog post from May 2014 outlined the grave financial dangers of heading down this path. Kansas already faces $4.1 billion (almost $1,400 per Kansan) in new Medicaid costs on account of Obamacare’s “individual mandate” … Read More
Kansas Medicaid Expansion by the Numbers: Is it Really a “Free Lunch?”
“Of course, I want people to have healthcare; I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.” That’s what Cindy Vinson—a retired California teacher and proud supporter of President Barack Obama—told the San Jose Mercury News when she learned of the insurance plan substitution and corresponding premium hike she would face under … Read More