The Kansas Health Policy Authority conducted an analysis of federal health care proposals upon the request Kansas Second District Republican Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins. Jenkins only requested the KHPA examine how Pelosi’s bill, H.R. 3962, would affect Kansans, though the report focuses on both the House bill and a Senate plan, S. 1796. The KHPA found that the House bill could result in savings of up to $25 million, while the Senate plan could save the state up to $50 million.

Before the report was published, Jenkins said she could not support Pelosi’s plan because it forced states to pay for the Medicaid expansion.

“The state of Kansas is facing a $460 million budget gap, and I cannot support a plan that will put a further strain on our state’s economic situation,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins’ spokesperson, Mary Geiger, said the KHPA’s determination that the health care proposals would likely financially benefit the state did not sway Jenkins from her strong opposition to the legislation.

Geiger said the KHPA’s analysis provided a “much rosier conclusion” that what had been previously provided by other sources, such as the National Council of State Legislators.

“While their estimates of savings appear to be optimistic and generous, the costs created by an expansion of Medicaid are very real and have a significant impact on the state budget,” Geiger told Kansas Liberty.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, said she disagreed with the report’s findings and suggested that the KHPA had made too many optimistic assumptions about how legislation would play out. For example, Landwehr questioned whether a final bill would include a 92 percent federal funding level of Medicaid expansions, which the KHPA allowed for.

“Even after the bill is signed, there are still so many moving parts and details that will be worked out by bureaucrats,” Landwehr told Kansas Liberty. “It is all about the interpretations.”

Landwehr pointed out that the report did not address fiscal issues such as how much Kansas residents would have to pay in increased federal taxes, and how much it would cost the state to house the Kansans who fail to get the mandatory insurance coverage and end up facing jail time.

Democrat health care proposals include requirements that mandate that every resident purchase health insurance or face the possibility of fines or jail time.

“It sounds like the KHPA made some assumptions they didn’t have the right to make and that they have left out some things that needed to be accounted for,” Landwehr said.

One of the core problems with the report is that it is unrealistic about how much extra cash Kansans will actually have to pay if the Democrat plans become a reality, said Sen. Jeff Colyer, R-Overland Park.

“Kansans are still going to be taxed to pay for it, so to say it saves Kansans anything is not true at all,” Colyer told Kansas Liberty. “It is still coming out of their pocket. It is just going through another government bureaucracy before it comes back to the state.”

Colyer, a surgeon, and a member of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, said he expected that Kansans would have to pay more in taxes to the federal government and that they would also likely have to pay a much higher amount for insurance coverage than what they currently have to pay.

Colyer also said he wouldn’t expect the federal government to follow through with providing funding for 92 percent of the Medicaid expansion.

“The federal government often times has unfunded mandates and assuming that in the year 2018 they are going to pay that percentage is not an assumption you can safely make,” Colyer said.

Colyer pointed out that even if the final version of a Democrats plan stipulated that it would cover 92 percent of the expansion costs, a separate funding bill would still need to pass to actually provide that funding.

The state and the federal government generally split Medicaid costs 60/40, with the state paying for 40 percent of costs.

The Kansas Republican delegation in D.C. is categorically opposed to the Democrats’ health proposals and has stated on numerous occasions that these proposals would harm the state’s economy.

Fourth District Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt said the Pelosi plan would cost taxpayers $1.2 trillion, and would also result in a loss of 5.5 million jobs. Rep. Jerry Moran, a Republican from the First District, said the bill would be “harmful” to Kansas residents by increasing Medicaid premiums for Kansas seniors while cutting their benefits. Jenkins described the Pelosi plan as “job killing” and said it would create $730 billion in new taxes.

—Holly Smith

The Week in Review