Hutchinson News: It’s time to expand Medicaid
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 too many of rural residents are uninsured.
Nearly 150,000 hardworking Kansans fall into a health coverage gap. They earn too much to qualify for KanCare, the Kansas Medicaid program, but too little to be eligible for financial help to buy private insurance. The reality is the uninsured rate in rural Kansas is higher than other parts of the state.
To address the challenge, we need to expand KanCare.