Kansas City, Kan., Mayor-CEO Mark Holland will join area health leaders and mayors across the country Wednesday as they urge Congress to preserve the protections offered in the Affordable Care Act.
Wednesday’s event at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall will launch a month-long campaign in Kansas’ Third Congressional District designed to help health advocates and consumers express support for the ACA to their U.S. legislators.
“The Affordable Care Act has played a tremendous role in helping the residents of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and the nation gain access to quality health care,” Mayor Holland said. “With the law under attack in Washington, it is more important than ever that we raise our voices in support of the many benefits that the ACA has provided our communities.”
Those benefits, according to the mayor, include:
• Eliminating lifetime and annual limits
• Insuring children up to the age of 26
• Assuring eligibility for insurance coverage even with pre-existing conditions
• Guaranteeing coverage for pregnancy and breast cancer screenings
• Providing coverage for preventive services at no additional cost
• Funding public health (several hundred thousand dollars in Wyandotte alone)
Since the ACA went into effect, 6,000 Wyandotte County households, 137,000 Kansans, and 20 million Americans have gained access to health coverage. These people have received important health benefits, including mental health and substance use disorder benefits.
In Wyandotte County, Healthy Communities Wyandotte partnered with the Community Health Council of Wyandotte County to enroll many of the 6,000 households in health insurance plans through the ACA marketplace.
“When the ACA went into effect, our community stepped up to make sure our residents could take full benefit of the law,” Mayor Holland said. “The effort we put into enrolling these residents now must be turned toward making sure we protect their access to quality healthcare.”
