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Public Policy Updates
Kansas and Missouri Legislative Session Updates
KANSAS
The Kansas Legislature concluded its Omnibus session in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 9. They will return on June 4 for Sine Die, the ceremonial last day of the session.
By far, the biggest news of this session was the April 28 resignation of Governor Kathleen Sebelius upon her confirmation as President Obama’s choice for the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Later that same evening, Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson was sworn in as the new Governor of Kansas. On May 14, Governor Parkinson named Troy Findley as his new Lieutenant Governor. Both Parkinson and Findley have said they will not seek elective office in 2010.
The issue of the economy dominated the 2009 session, with legislators forced to find ways to fill growing budget shortfalls in both the current and upcoming fiscal years. When legislators opened the session on January 12, they faced a projected budget shortfall of approximately $200 million in FY 2009 and upwards of $1 billion in FY 2010. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the state felt a bit of relief from its budget woes, but there were many questions about how monies could and could not be spent. In the end, many of the dollars provided to the state in the form of an increased Medicaid matching rate (FMAP) to preserve the healthcare safety net were captured as general fund savings and used to fill other budget holes.
As a follow-through on the 2008 Legislature’s promise to expand the HealthWave program from 200% to 250% of the 2008 federal poverty level, policy makers voted to fund the expansion with $1.2 million of tobacco funds. This increase is expected to cover an additional 4,600 children in 2010 and as many as 9,000 additional children by 2012. Because of budget cuts to the agency, the Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA) began alerting stakeholders that the growing number of Medicaid applications is causing a backlog at the processing center. By federal requirement, the applications must be processed within 45 days, and KHPA is warning that they can not keep up with the volume within that timeframe. Applications are expected to peak this fall when unemployment benefits begin to run out. An effort to introduce a time-limited Medicaid provider rate cut to fund core Medicaid operations met with no interest by lawmakers.
Other health-related items of interest:
- The clean indoor air effort passed the Senate, but was stalled by the House.
- There was no interest by lawmakers for an increase in the tobacco tax.
- State grants to safety net clinics were reduced by approximately $100,000. While a cut, this reduction is relatively small given the economic climate and seems to indicate a fairly significant level of support of the safety net clinics.
Other health-related news:
After the completion of the 2009 session, the Executive Director of the KHPA, Dr. Marcia Nielsen, announced her resignation to accept a faculty and administrative position at the University of Kansas Medical Center. On May 19, KHPA announced that Andy Allison will be the acting Executive Director until a permanent replacement can be named. Currently, Allison is the state’s Medicaid Director.
MISSOURI
The state of the economy, budget woes and what to do with federal stimulus dollars also dominated the 2009 Missouri Legislative session, which ended on Friday, May 15.
Governor Jay Nixon put forward two fairly significant healthcare proposals at the beginning of the session, but neither proposal passed. The first was a plan to enroll an additional 27,000 children in SCHIP by eliminating or reducing premiums paid by families.
The second was a proposal to provide Medicaid coverage to nearly 35,000 low-income parents by increasing eligibility to 50% of the federal poverty level. Although this proposal would have been funded with a mixture of money from hospitals and the federal government, at no direct cost to the state, the initiative was defeated in the final days of the session.
Other health-related items of interest:
- Using federal funds, benefits were extended for unemployed Missourians for up to an additional 20 weeks.
- By 2012, Missouri will add an additional five genetic tests to their newborn screening program.
- Starting in the 2010, elementary schools will have to ensure that all students participate in moderate physical activity for approximately 30 minutes each day and that all students get at least one recess of at least 20 minutes each day.
- Funding for presumptive eligibility for SCHIP was maintained.
For guidance on the rules of advocacy, visit the Alliance for Justice.
For more information on state and federal budget and health policy discussions, check out the following resources:
Missouri Budget Project
(Click on "How Missouri is Faring During These Tough Economic Times” and "How the U.S. House Economic Recovery Package Impacts Missouri.”)
Kansas Health Policy Authority
The Commonwealth Fund |
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