Hawkins Blocks Medicaid Expansion - Hears Pushback in Plainville
House Speaker Dan Hawkins of Wichita went to Rooks County in western Kansas on April 11th to emphasize his rationale for blocking Medicaid Expansion.
The event, hosted by local Republicans and with a meal provided by the conservative lobbying group Americans for Prosperity, featured the Speaker’s rigid opposition to efforts to expand healthcare. The Kansas Reflector covered the event and captured the pushback from local residents and rural health officials who weren’t buying it.
“We don’t want to make a huge mistake,” said Speaker Hawkins, as quoted in the Reflector, “Medicaid expansion is a huge mistake.”
One local Plainville physician objected to Hawkins generalizing about physicians and their opinions. She was quoted saying many health care providers are tired of turning patients away or having to base treatment on a patient’s ability to pay.
Mark Schaukowitch of Plainville assisted in organizing expansion advocates to attend. Schaukowitch challenged Speaker Hawkins to address his potential for conflict of interest, given that Hawkins works as an insurance salesman. Schaukowitch expanded on this concern and questioned Hawkins’ truthfulness in a letter to the editor published April 21st by the Hays Post.
Imagine being blocked from getting health care. Imagine being the one who stood in the way. (stock photo from CDC on unsplash)
“He [Hawkins] probably does not want his lucrative health insurance business to make less money than it does now,” wrote Schaukowitch. “Either that, or he really does not care that the “truth” of Medicaid expansion is that Governor Kelly’s legislation would employ more people, help hospitals and decrease Kansans’ health care costs.”
Also attending the Plainville event was Michael McCorkle, a Democrat from Wichita who is running against Hawkins for the House District 100 seat. Hawkins’s unrelenting obstruction of Medicaid expansion was highlighted by McCorkle at a kick-off campaign rally held in Wichita on May 6th.
“He [Hawkins} is a friendly guy on a personal level ….. but yet still [can] say it’s OK that 150,000 people don’t have adequate health care, which is wrong,” said McCorkle, as reported in the Reflector.
In the end, the GOP Speaker continued to impose his will on Kansas - for at least another year. The legislature adjourned April 30th with a final effort to force debate on expansion having been blocked by Republican state senators (as reported by the Associated Press).
The Alliance for a Healthy Kansas represents responsible health care providers and citizen voices who have advocated for Medicare Expansion for over a decade. Credible, nonpartisan information on the benefits of expansion and the missed opportunity over the last decade can be found at expandkancare.com
Sources:
https://hayspost.com/posts/00c82adb-f823-4f4b-84e0-38fccb7bd846 (Letters to the Editor)
https://expandkancare.com/ Alliance for Healthy Kansas