Kansas privatized Medicaid program gets the federal brushoff, setting back health care in the state

Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program gets the federal brushoff, setting back health care in the state — again

Three years ago, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a scary piece of legislation known as a health-care compact. Pushed by Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook of Shawnee and other fringy lawmakers, it was designed to allow Kansas to basically secede from federal health-care programs and do its own thing.

The law created a flurry of concern from groups like AARP, who pointed out it could potentially put seniors’ Medicaid benefits at the mercy of state government using federal block grants. But a cascading series of debacles would be required to set the compact into motion, and most people shifted their worries to more pressing matters, such as the state’s chronic inability to keep the lights on.

Now, though, no debacle is beyond the realm of possibility. So it is worth noting that the compact is sitting out there, the foul seed of a bad idea just waiting to bloom into disaster. Enacting it requires a vote by Congress and a cooperative administration, elements that seemed farfetched in 2014 — when Democrats controlled the U.S. Senate and Barack Obama sat in the White House — but could now be on the horizon.

At least eight other states, including Missouri, have passed health-care-compact legislation. But Kansas stands out as uniquely unqualified to run its own health care. Look no further than the revelation last week that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid had rejected the administration’s request for a one-year extension of KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

Read more: http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20849967/kansas-privatized-medicaid-program-gets-the-federal-brushoff-setting-back-health-care-in-the-state-again