Tag: Kansas

Schmidt, Kelly campaigns at odds on approach to Medicaid expansion in Kansas

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Katie Sawyer, Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt’s running mate, said neither she nor the attorney general would support Medicaid expansion in its current proposed form.

Sawyer made the remarks at a candidate forum in Salina over the weekend in response to a question from an audience member who asked if Schmidt would support a plan to expand KanCare, the state-run Medicaid program. The audience member also questioned former Gov. Sam Brownback’s stance against expansion, arguing the state lost billions of dollars by not expanding.

“I can’t speak to what Gov. Brownback did,” Sawyer said. “What I will say pretty clearly is, as it stands right now in its current proposed form, Derek Schmidt would not be supportive of expanding Medicaid.”

C.J. Grover, campaign manager for Schmidt, said the attorney general could not support current proposals because they would assist able-bodied Kansans without children without a work requirement. No matter who is governor, Grover said he did not believe the Legislature was likely to pass Medicaid expansion.

Overall, he said Schmidt considers himself a “open-minded skeptic” on the issue.

“Should the Legislature one day reconsider and decide to advance a proposal, there are requirements AG Schmidt believes must be met,” Grover said. “First, the state share of the expansion cost must be honestly paid for, second there must be a work or job training requirement to ensure expansion is not a welfare program but instead a way to help able-bodied Kansans who are working to support themselves, and third there must be a clear and enforceable prohibition of any taxpayer funding for abortion coverage.

According to the most recent Kansas Health Institute estimates, expansion in January 2023 would lead to 148,000 newly enrolled Kansans. Nearly 88,000 adults who currently fall in the “Medicaid coverage gap” would gain coverage if Medicaid were to expand.

The April estimates indicate an increase of 36% from the pre-pandemic monthly average KanCare enrollment, but only a 1.4% increase in spending. In addition, KHI estimated that the American Rescue Plan Act would create $418 million in savings for Kansas over two years if KanCare were expanded to low-income adults.

“None of the non-expansion states have adopted expansion since ARPA was enacted,” the brief notes in conclusion. “In the meantime, Kansans who remain in the coverage gap have few alternatives for comprehensive affordable health insurance.”

KHI estimates include indirect effects of expansion enrollment for children and currently eligible adults.

Alliance for a Healthy Kansas estimates the state has lost out on over $5.6 billion without expansion and 150,000 Kansans fall in the Medicaid gap.

Proponents of expansion also highlight concerns with rural hospital closures. Since 2005, nine rural hospitals in the state have closed, and of the 105 rural hospitals in Kansas 75 are currently running at a loss and are vulnerable to closure, according to a Center for Health Care Quality and Payment Reform study.

Madison Andrus, a campaign spokeswoman for Gov. Laura Kelly, said the governor would continue to strongly support expansion.

“It will expand quality health care for 150,000 hardworking Kansans and create 23,000 jobs,” Andrus said. “That’s good for rural Kansas, good for the Kansas economy, and good for Kansas health care workers — and it will remain a top priority in her second term.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/28/schmidt-kelly-campaigns-at-odds-on-approach-to-medicaid-expansion-in-kansas/

Kansas GOP governor candidate arrested on felony charge plunges ahead with campaign

Candidate Arlyn Briggs confident criminal threat case will be dropped

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican gubernatorial candidate Arlyn Briggs recorded a campaign commercial outlining his vision of conservative government in Kansas only to find out a prominent Christian radio network had no intention of airing the advertisement.

He said an employee at Bott Radio Network in Overland Park explained the campaign spot couldn’t be used on the network after learning of Briggs’ arrest on a charge of criminal threat against a law enforcement officer. The arrest in Allen County was a misunderstanding that ought to be resolved in his favor, Briggs said, but the radio network’s rebuff was a setback in his primary campaign against GOP frontrunner Derek Schmidt, who is the state’s attorney general.

“I’m a strong Christian,” Briggs said. “My job is to be a strong reflection of Jesus Christ.”

Briggs, 64, of rural Kincaid, said the legal trouble stemmed from allowing a man being sought by law enforcement for an alleged stalking offense to stay with him in early June. Briggs noticed a sheriff’s department vehicle driving slowly past his home, so he called the department to remind authorities of the “castle doctrine,” the stand-your-ground right of individuals in Kansas to take reasonable action, including deadly force, in defense of a home.

He warned law enforcement officers not to try anything, he said, and pointedly added “I may shoot you.” He said he wouldn’t have actually fired on deputies, and nothing happened. But officers later served an Anderson County warrant on him for criminal threat. He was released June 15 from Allen County Jail.

If successful in the Aug. 2 primary against Schmidt, Briggs would likely face Democratic frontrunner Gov. Laura Kelly as well as independent candidate Dennis Pyle and Libertarian Seth Cordell in November. If victorious in the general election, Briggs said he would donate his state government salary to charity.

“I feel the primary is where the contest is this year. Kelly is so liberal,” Briggs said. “I say vote for the person. Not what they said, but what they do.”

Briggs said he was disappointed with Schmidt as a political leader, and asserted the attorney general was too focused on getting on U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s “good list” in anticipation of eventually running for Moran’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Briggs said he’d challenged Schmidt to five debates, but hadn’t received a response.

“I think there’s growing concern among conservatives across the United States and Kansas with what’s happening with government and our leaders,” Briggs said.

On social media last year, Briggs was critical of state legislators who he claimed talked about the value of local government control and then passed bills stripping local elected officials of influence. He said they all should be taught a lesson by being voted out of office.

Briggs ran for the Kansas House in 2012 and 2020, but lost both contests. He was soundly defeated in the most recent campaign, falling to state Rep. Trevor Jacobs, with Jacobs securing 83% of the vote in a GOP primary.

He said he lived in Johnson County for about 30 years. He worked for a Kansas City bank and at Hallmark and has been employed as a trucker and farmer. He performed mission work in more than a dozen countries, he said.

Briggs’ lieutenant governor running mate is Abilene resident Lance Berland, who Briggs said recently performed community service in Colorado to deal with his own legal challenges.

On social media, Berland said “we the people” were engaged in a fight against Republican and Democrat “warmongers,” the “most bloated, wasteful bureaucracy in human history” and “corrupt crony capitalists.” He claimed businessman George Soros, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett were involved in demise of U.S. freedom.

“We have been played, and Americans killed, by our own government and the ultra-wealthy non-citizens who dominate our nation from Davos, Geneva, and Brussels,” he said. “These people have perpetuated and delivered the world only racism, eugenics, war, toxicity, disease and unnecessary deaths by the hundreds of millions. These people serve only themselves and the devil.”

He also expressed disappointment Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden were convinced by the “global health mafia” to recommend Americans be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/27/kansas-gop-governor-candidate-arrested-on-felony-charge-plunges-ahead-with-campaign/

Kansas political leaders, advocacy groups react to Roe v. Wade repeal

Strong turnout for Aug. 2 abortion amendment vote encouraged

by Noah Taborda and Margaret Mellott, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Kansas lawmakers and activists across the political spectrum present emotional and starkly contrasting responses Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ranging from celebration to outrage to calls for action.

With a proposed constitutional amendment on the August primary ballot offering a vote on whether to maintain a Kansas constitutional right to abortion, the U.S. Supreme Court decision raised already high stakes in Kansas. Under a state Supreme Court ruling, Kansans maintained that right even after the ruling from the nation’s highest court.

Conservatives across the state celebrated the victory while Democratic legislators blasted the decision, but both were quick to remind voters of the significance of the “Value Them Both” amendment as they head to the polls. Aug. 2.

“Here in Kansas, however, we still have work to do because of the deeply flawed Hodes decision released by the Kansas Supreme Court, which wrongly invented an unlimited right to abortion in our 1859 constitution, and recklessly put into question even our most basic protections for women and their unborn children,” said Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican.

“Abortions are and will remain safe, regulated and accessible in Kansas, thanks to our state constitution,” said Rep. Jennifer Day, D- Overland Park. “We will maintain those rights when we vote NO on the constitutional amendment question on ALL ballots on August 2nd.”

Passage of the amendment would nullify a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling that said a right to bodily autonomy in the state’s Bill of Rights included a woman’s right to an abortion. The amendment contains no exemptions for pregnancies because of rape or incest or to save a pregnant woman’s life, but it would not stop the state government from passing such exceptions into state law.

Even with months to prepare, the decision was a devastating blow to personal autonomy, said Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes.

“Abortion is a personal decision,” the Lenexa Democrat said. “The right to abortion is protected by the Kansas constitution, and we’ve got to keep it that way. I will not let my colleagues in the legislature take that freedom away from my fellow Kansans — not without a fight.”

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican candidate for governor, backed the decision and concurred with the idea that Roe was wrong from the start. He said this decision returns the power to decide these matters where it belongs: with the people, not a federal court.

A rise in abortions in Kansas over the past two years was among the reasons Schmidt said the decision was necessary. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s 2021 report on abortion statistics shows an increase of 4.1%, from 7,542 abortions reported in 2020 to 7,849 in 2021.

“I prefer a future with less abortion, not more,” Schmidt said. “To preserve existing limits on late-term abortions, requirements parents be notified when minors seek abortion and prohibitions on using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion, I will join with other pro-life Kansans in casting my vote for Value Them Both.”

While the 2021 increase was almost entirely due to Kansas residents, between 2019 and 2020 the number of annual abortions increased by 630, driven by 528 girls and women primarily from Texas and Oklahoma.
Abortion rights organizations say the Kansas numbers, when looked at as a whole, show the effect of restrictive policies in neighboring states.

Texas’ six-week abortion ban went into effect Sept. 1, 2021, and in Oklahoma performing an abortion officially became a criminal offense with the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Kansas GOP executive director Shannon Pahls celebrated the decision and said Kansas must endeavor not to become like states with more widespread access to abortions, like California and New York.

“Kansas Republicans will continue to advocate for the right to life and push back against the Democrats’ radical pro-abortion agenda,” she said. “Our work is not done.”

Democratic House candidate for District 52, Derik Flerlage, tweeted that abortion should not be governmentally managed.

“As a born and raised Catholic, abortion has been a topic I’ve dealt with from a very young age,” Flerlage wrote. “At the foundation of it all, I do not believe that the government should be involved in personal health decisions.

“It’s an incredibly complex moral issue that shouldn’t be mandated,” he continued in the following tweet. “Once again — advocacy for pro-life groups could continue. Improving sex education and contraceptive access is critical. These are issues we can’t properly discuss on social media.”

Kansas abortion rights advocates lament decision dangers

Micah Kubic, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said this decision would back many Americans into a corner and usher in a “life-threatening public health crisis.”

“Access to abortion shouldn’t depend on where we live, how much money we make or the color of our skin,” Kubic said. “We should be able to make the best medical decisions for ourselves and for our families — without a government bureaucrat sitting in the exam room next to us.”

Ashley All, of the coalition Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, said the decision was “unprecedented” and “shameful.”

“If we do not act, children will have fewer constitutional rights than their parents,” All said. “This decision reinforces how critical it is that we protect our constitutional rights here at home. Kansans must continue to have the freedom to make private health decisions free from government overreach.”

Reducing or eliminating access to local, free and on demand abortions is a hit to American freedom, said Zack Gingrich-Gaylord of Trust Women.
“Over the past 10 months, we have seen the dire consequences of abortion bans that force pregnant people to travel hundreds of miles to access essential medical care,” Gingrich-Gaylord said. “We have seen this play out in our own clinics in Oklahoma and Kansas, all while Roe remained the law of the land. For many people in our region, however, reality has been ‘post-Roe’ for decades.”

Ryan Reza, president of Kansas Young Democrats, has spent the day sharing resources and advocating for abortion rights on Twitter. He reminded those affected by today’s news to take a minute to process it.

“First, take a breather,” Reza tweeted. “This one is hard, and there are folks who deserve time to collect themselves. Take it easy the rest of the day.”

Reza encouraged Kansans to vote no on Aug. 2.

On flipside, Mackenzie Haddix, a spokesperson for the Value Them Both Coalition — led by Kansans for Life, the Kansas Catholic Conference, and Kansas Family Voice — said the group was continuing efforts to ensure the passage of the amendment.

“Today’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson emphasizes the importance of our democracy, restoring the power to the states to decide how and if they are going to place limits on the abortion industry,” Haddix said. “The U.S. Supreme Court restored the people’s ability to come to individual consensus on abortion limits — but not in Kansas. As it stands today, unelected judges in Kansas are the ones who will decide the fate of abortion limits.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/06/24/kansas-political-leaders-advocacy-groups-react-to-roe-v-wade-repeal/