The Forward Kansas team is again holding another Healthcare for Kansans rally on December 5 in Wichita. As 
you’ll remember, FK held a successful rally in Shawnee, KS earlier last month on this very issue (see pictures of the November 7 rally here). We’ll again be hitting the streets, only this time in Wichita and in Rep. Brenda Landwehr’s district.
Date: Saturday, December 5th, 2009
Time: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (Noon)
Location: 21st & Amidon (Southwest & Northwest Corners), Wichita
State Rep. Brenda “Brought to You by the Medical Industry” Landwehr recently proposed an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that we like to call the Health Insurance Protection Act. Under the amendment, Rep. Landwehr is proposing that any comprehensive federal health legislation passed after August 2009 not be enacted in Kansas. However, when asked at the announcement for the legislation, Landwehr admitted that she had not quite figured out how to exempt Kansas tax dollars from paying for the federal health care legislation if Kansans were not to receive it, saying that’s “a road we’ll have to cross later.” More importantly, Landwehr has admitted that her state constitutional amendment doesn’t do anything to help persons needing health care today or suffering through a quagmire of pre-existing conditions, saying “…it doesn’t change anything, doesn’t change anything that’s occurring today at all.”
Recently, though, there’s been significant evidence that the federal health reform legislation now pending before the U.S. Senate would actually benefit Kansas. Marci Nielsen, the former Executive Director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA) and now Vice-Chancellor for Public Policy at KU Medical School, recently told our friends over at the Pitch Plog that Kansas would be a “net beneficiary of reform,” meaning that Kansans would actually pay in less than they received under the federal health care legislation. Nielsen explained to the Plog that:
“A state like Kansas can really benefit because so many of our uninsured are self-employed, work for small businesses, or are part-time seasonal. [...] They’d have a policy they could afford with limits on what they’d pay out of pocket. [...] There’s a sliding scale tax credit to help small businesses in rural areas to provide benefit for workers.”
And yesterday, the Pitch Plog, again, uncovered some documents showing that Kansas would indeed be a beneficiary under the proposed federal legislation. Particularly, KS-02 Rep. Lynn Jenkins recently asked the current KHPA executive director, Andy Allison, what would be the impact of the federal health legislation in Kansas. Mr. Allison had the matter reviewed by an independent actuarial accounting firm and, according to the Pitch Plog, the outcomes were favorable for Kansas:
“The Senate bill would probably save the state between $25 and $50 million a year and cover approximately 195,000 of the estimated 335,000 uninsured Kansans. The House bill would save the state up to $25 million a year and could cover 240,000 people, the agency estimates.”
With all the hard evidence, though, Landwehr & Co. continue to beat this drum about “sovereignty” and “socialism,” despite the fact these proposals will drive down costs in Kansas and insure between 195,000 and 240,000 people in our currently uninsured population of 350,000. Who’s Brenda Landwehr working for anyways? (Here’s a hint: her top campaign contributors are, by industry, Insurance, Health Professionals, Pharmaceuticals & Health Products, and Hospitals & Nursing Homes.)
Join us on Saturday, December 5 at 21st & Amidon in Wichita to show Rep. Landwehr that you don’t take kindly to her playing politics with your healthcare.
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