The Coronavirus and Coverage: Why Medicaid Expansion is Critical During a Public Health Crisis

By Sheldon Weisgrau | March 13, 2020 State officials recently announced the first death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in Kansas. The imminent spread of the virus will inevitably stress and illuminate the cracks in the health care system. Among the largest of these cracks is the state’s high rate of […]

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 […]

Emporia Gazette: Nuns step up for Medicaid

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 […]

New York Times: Kansas GOP Leader’s Medicaid Expansion Move Roils Statehouse

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. […]

Medicaid Expansion is Critical to Rural Prosperity

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 […]

Alliance Senior Policy Advisor Sheldon Weisgrau Joins Missouri Foundation for Health

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.

KC Star: Kelly, appearing with Denning, slams ‘immoral’ blockade of Kansas Medicaid expansion

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 […]

KWCH: With Medicaid Expansion in gridlock, plan supporters hit the road

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 […]