A coalition of more than four dozen groups is asking Gov. Laura Kelly to veto a provision in the budget that would end continuous enrollment for parents and caregivers in the state’s Medicaid program.
The proviso would end 12 months of continuous Medicaid coverage for parents and caregivers of children with incomes below 38% of the federal poverty level, or making less than $11,856 annually for a family of four, the group said.
The provision, which has been in place since 2010, allows the state to offer continuous coverage for 12 months to low-income parents who qualify for Medicaid.
The potential change means that roughly 38,000 Kansans would face a monthly redetermination over whether they’re still qualified for Medicaid coverage instead of once a year, according to opponents of the proviso.
They said the proviso would drive up state costs by $3 million to $4 million to carry out the extra redeterminatons required by the proviso.
“This change will affect the most vulnerable Kansans who live well below the poverty line, making it more time consuming and burdensome,” the groups said in their letter to the Democratic governor.
“The constant disenrollment and re-enrollment of beneficiaries is burdensome for everyone and could prevent families from receiving the necessary care they need,” the groups wrote.
“Ending this continuous coverage…will harm Kansas families. It will cause parents and their children to lose needed coverage, increase costs for the state, and reduce needed revenue for health care providers,” they wrote.
There was a bill that would have done something similar that was introduced in the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency that was never acted on.
Republican state Sen. J.R. Claeys, vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the proviso has merit.
“There is nothing worse than an individual ineligible for public benefits taking those taxpayer dollars from the people who are truly in need,” Claeys said in an email.
“Taxpayers deserve better than to have those who are work-capable and fully employed robbing the poorest among us with such a sense of entitlement,” he said.
Signers of the letter included groups such as Community Care Network of Kansas, the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, the, Alliance for Healthy Kansas, Kansas Action for Children, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
