Tag: Election 2014

by Jim McLean, KHI News Service

Topeka — The top-of-the-ticket races may be commanding the most attention in this year’s Kansas election, but significant issues also are in play in some of the down-ballot contests.

The insurance commissioner’s race is one example. Like the higher-profile races, it features candidates with very different perspectives on key issues. But unlike those races, the contestants remain largely unknown to Kansas voters. A poll taken as the race headed into its final week showed Republican Ken Selzer leading Democrat Dennis Anderson by double digits – but nearly half of voters didn’t know either candidate.

Nonetheless, some big issues are in play, including the Affordable Care Act, the controversial federal health reform law.

Selzer, a conservative, wants to see it repealed. Anderson carefully avoids endorsing the law but says he supports the goal behind it of making affordable health coverage available to millions more Americans.

“The core issue is how do we provide protection for the most people?” Anderson said, adding that using tax credits to help the uninsured purchase coverage ultimately will reduce the number of hidden charges built into insurance policies and hospital bills.

“People don’t often understand that the population that doesn’t have coverage costs us in terms of higher commercial insurance premiums or additional social programs,” Anderson said. “If they get ill and they go to a hospital and they can’t pay, who pays the bill? Well, we all do. It’s just that we’re distributing it in kind of an invisible way right now.”

Selzer, on the other hand, opposes the ACA as an unnecessary intrusion in the private marketplace. He says the federal government shouldn’t be providing subsidies to help the uninsured purchase private coverage.

“It (the reform law) essentially nationalized a program that should be in the marketplace,” Selzer said. “I am going to advocate for the repeal – and, if we fail at repeal, for changes in Obamacare.”

But, he said, regardless of what happens with the repeal effort, “We’re going to do the job that we’re required to do by law to educate and advocate for consumers and to regulate insurance companies and license agents.”

Neither Selzer nor Anderson will have a role in deciding the fate of the controversial health reform law. However, their views likely would influence aspects of the law’s implementation in Kansas, such as the extent to which the insurance department is involved in consumer education.

About 12.6 percent of Kansans – nearly 360,000 people – were uninsured prior to implementation of the ACA. Approximately 57,000 Kansans purchased ACA coverage during the first enrollment period, which ran from Oct. 1, 2013, through March 31. A second open-enrollment period begins Nov. 15 and extends through Feb. 15, 2015.

Disagreement on health compact
The candidates disagree sharply on the formation of a compact to free participating states from federal health care regulations.

Led by conservative Republicans opposed to the ACA, the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback approved the state’s membership in the health care compact. Since then, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, a moderate Republican who has endorsed Anderson, and groups representing Kansas seniors have raised concerns about language in the enabling legislation that allows participating states to take control of the Medicare program within their borders.

Anderson shares Praeger’s concerns, calling the compact “a terrible idea.”

“It’s quite disconcerting when you hear the folks who passed it trying to reassure you that it (Medicare takeover) would never become reality while at the same time wishing that it did,” Anderson said.

More than 450,000 Kansas seniors are enrolled in Medicare.

In the primary, Selzer supported the compact, saying he was for “anything that brings decision-making to a more local level.”

But in recent weeks, as more people raised concerns about the Medicare issue, Selzer has sought to downplay the issue by stressing that as commissioner he would play no role in establishing it. That, he said, will be up to Congress and to members of the Kansas Legislature.

“If the multi-state compact does go forward, there will be an extensive amount of discussion in the state of Kansas before it gets implemented,” Selzer said. “And it will be a legislative issue, not an insurance commissioner issue.”

Anderson’s opposition to the compact and his support of expanding Medicaid eligibility to more low-income Kansas adults are the reasons that Praeger reached across party lines to endorse him.

“I would hate to see politics controlling the insurance department,” Praeger said, equating support of the compact and opposition to Medicaid expansion as litmus test political issues for conservatives. “I think it’s so important that we have an insurance commissioner that will be dedicated to good public policy and not use the office for political gain.”

The low-budget Anderson campaign is working to get the word out about Praeger’s endorsement, believing that it alone could be enough to convince some moderate Republicans to join Democrats in voting for him.

Consumer focus
Both Selzer and Anderson are touting their business experience on the campaign trail. Anderson heads a family company that trains insurance agents across the country and prepares them for licensure examinations. Selzer is a certified public accountant with decades of experience in the insurance industry.

Both candidates say they will take a balanced approach to regulating insurance companies while working to protect consumers. And they generally agree that tighter regulation of ACA navigators is needed.

Unlike insurance agents, navigators aren’t licensed to sell insurance products. But various organizations – including safety net clinics, county health departments and social services groups – employ them to help guide consumers through the coverage options in the online marketplace.

Navigators undergo criminal background checks and receive specialized training but are not licensed.

Selzer wants to change that.

“I think navigators ought to be licensed to operate here in the state of Kansas,” he said.

A bill that would have required navigators to be licensed and imposed restrictions on the kind of guidance they could provide consumers was passed by the Kansas Senate during the 2014 session, but it stalled in the House.

Anderson stops short of saying that navigators should pay a fee and be licensed, but he favors requiring them to be registered with the insurance department.

“That way if you find that they are acting inappropriately, you have some capacity to remove them,” Anderson said. “After all, they are people who are interacting with consumers and pointing them in a particular direction.”

The KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute. It is supported in part by a variety of underwriters. The News Service is committed to timely, objective and in-depth coverage of health issues and the policy-making environment. All News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution, including a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online. More about the News Service is at khi.org/newsservice or contact 785-233-5443.
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Candidates for governor differed on their positions on education and other issues in tonight’s debate, broadcast in this area on KSMO-TV.

Both candidates expertly fielded questions during the debate from Wichita, televised throughout the state.

In the third debate in the governor’s race, Democratic challenger Paul Davis said that incumbent Republican Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law the biggest cut of public education in Kansas. Davis said he supported restoring funding to public education.

He said that Brownback had “jeopardized the quality of education for entire generations of Kansas kids.”

Brownback, however, differed on this issue and said, “I wish they would get this record right.” He said a lot of the education cuts took place in Gov. Mark Parkinson’s administration. Brownback said he supported education and he increased funding to kindergarten through 12th grade every year he was in office. “They shouldn’t lie about that in their advertising,” he said.

A political analyst has recently pointed out that the candidates are both right in that Davis is talking about funding cuts to the classroom that often resulted in larger class sizes and fewer teachers. Brownback is discussing overall education funding, including dollars spent for new school buildings and for financing education.

Davis said during the forum, referring to negative political ads, that persons supporting Brownback have resorted to personal attacks on Davis because they can’t win on the issues. He added that he knew from the beginning there would be an ugly campaign with public attacks from Brownback’s supporters.

Brownback said that the Kansas economy is moving forward and he had put into place a pro-growth plan. He said that Davis favored an Obama-style economy of higher taxes, no growth, and “everyone telling us what to do.” Brownback said he favored lower taxes.

Brownback said the state had been a in a period of high taxes, 6.45 percent income tax rates, and that has now been reduced to 4.8 percent. He said he is working to advance the growth agenda and not the tax agenda.

Brownback also was critical of the “Obama” tax-and-spend model, saying, “I think you will spend your money more wisely than the federal government will spend it.”

Davis said he had voted many times in the past to cut taxes, but the governor’s economic experiment was not working, He said there would be $1.3 billion in debt over the next five years because of the governor’s experiment.

“We can’t afford that,” Davis said. “We’re going to have more cuts to schools, we’re going to have more dollars taken out of our transportation plan, a proven job creator. We’ve got to end this experiment because it’s just not working.”

The candidates also responded to a question on same-sex marriage and the Kansas constitutional amendment.

Davis said at the time it was passed, as a state legislator he did not support the constitutional amendment in Kansas that said marriage was between a man and woman only. He said he believed it would have an adverse effect on the welcoming image of the state of Kansas. He added that since it is in the constitution, there is nothing he or the governor “can do to impact this issue.” It is in the hands of the court system, he added. He said he was disappointed that Brownback was an early supporter of a law that would legalize discrimination.

Brownback said 70 percent of the citizens of Kansas voted for this constitutional amendment, and he also voted for it as a citizen. He said as governor, he would defend the constitution of Kansas, which contains this amendment.

On a question about insurance and the state’s role in insuring the uninsured, and how Kansas has opted out of the state exchange, Brownback said this federal health care program is a billion-dollar price tag for the state of Kansas. He said the state needs to take care of the people on Medicaid now, and shouldn’t be expanding into Obamacare in the Medicaid population when the state doesn’t have the money to do it.

Davis said the Medicaid program in Kansas has been another failed state experiment.

“All you hear are complaints from the health care providers that are delivering these services, and the thousands of Kansans, many of them people with disabilities, who have seen coverage denied, coverage delayed. We have to change the way this is working, because it’s not working,” Davis said.

On another topic, Davis said the state, local and federal governments, along with hospitals and health care, need to cooperate and be ready in the event of an Ebola case in Kansas. It is an issue where politics has no place, he said. He hopes there will not be an Ebola case, but if it does come here, the state needs to be ready for it, he said.

Brownback criticized the federal government as being too lax about Ebola, saying there should have been a travel ban on persons coming from countries that have many Ebola cases. He also said there is a need to be careful in the way waste disposal from Ebola patients is handled. Biocontainment facilities need to be ready for people, he added. Currently, a state plan is being prepared to deal with Ebola.

Davis said the governor’s economic experiment resulted in rising property taxes of more than 10 percent in the rural counties. He said cutting property taxes would be his first priority in cutting taxes.

Brownback said Davis voted against a bill to reduce property taxes as part of the overall school finance bill. Population decline has lessened from 10 percent to 1 percent in rural Kansas, Brownback said.

The forum also touched on the candidates’ positions on fracking, environmental issues, alternative sources of energy, water resources, and agriculture.

Keen Umbehr, a Libertarian candidate for governor, earlier in this debate cycle had asked to participate in forums but his campaign stated he was not invited. For more information on Umbehr’s positions, visit his website at www.keenforkansas.com/.