By Monte Wentz, O.D. | March 8, 2020 As a health care provider, small business owner and a former hospital board member, I understand how important reliable health care is to our community and to our local economy. However, we are facing a real challenge to maintaining health care in rural communities like ours because […]

By the Editorial Board | March 5, 2020 To the 76 Catholic nuns who signed a letter urging the Kansas Legislature to pass Medicaid expansion, we say, thank you for your courage. In the letter, the nuns say it is “deeply immoral” for anyone to go without medical care. “We cannot allow anyone to suffer […]

By John Hanna | March 7, 2020 TOPEKA, Kan. — Jim Denning once symbolized what for Medicaid expansion supporters was wrong with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. Now, the Kansas Senate majority leader is an expansion champion who’s under fire from some GOP lawmakers he’s supposed to be leading for working with the state’s Democratic governor. […]

By Sheldon Weisgrau | March 5, 2020 Rural hospitals are in crisis. Over the past decade, 120 rural hospitals across the United States have closed. 2019 was the worst year yet, with 19 closures, including two in Kansas. Five rural Kansas hospitals have closed since 2010. The loss of local health care services may be […]

The Alliance for a Healthy Kansas today announced that Senior Policy Advisor Sheldon Weisgrau is departing the organization to take a new role as vice president for health policy at the Missouri Foundation for Health in St. Louis.

By Jonathan Shorman | March 2, 2020 Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, and Senate Republican Leader Jim Denning ramped up a pressure campaign Monday to break Senate President Susan Wagle’s blockade of their Medicaid expansion compromise, which Kelly called “immoral.” If it passes, the bipartisan Medicaid deal would represent a signature achievement for Kelly […]

March 2, 2020 Democratic Governor Laura Kelly and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning visited Wichita on Monday. They spoke before hospital administrators and faith leaders, pushing for an end to the gridlock for the Medicaid Expansion. It comes nearly two months after they initially released their bipartisan plan for expansion. “It’s a good piece […]

By Dick Bond, Dave Kerr and Steve Morris | Feb. 29, 2020 As lifelong Kansans and Republicans, each of us considered it a great honor and privilege to serve as president of the Kansas Senate. We were guided by important principles: Lead the chamber with honesty and integrity. Listen to and consider all viewpoints. And, […]

By Vallerie L. Gleason | Feb. 25, 2020 It is time for a renewed conversation about KanCare expansion. This year is clearly the most significant progress we have seen on expansion to date. Finally, collaboration efforts led by the state’s Republicans and Democrats broke some ice. This year we have the opportunity to pass legislation […]

By Sherman Smith | Feb. 25, 2020 Seventy-six Kansas Catholic nuns have signed a letter to legislators urging them to pass Medicaid expansion as a desperately needed life-saving benefit for suffering Kansans. The call to action, dated Tuesday, confronts lawmakers locked in a stalemate over Medicaid expansion and the House’s failure earlier this month to […]