Issue Position: Healthcare

DO YOU SUPPORT ACCEPTING FEDERAL DOLLARS FOR MEDICAID EXPANSION IN KANSAS? YES
I have been a consistent advocate and vote for expanding Medicaid in Kansas. To our credit, through the efforts of all Democrats and a group of Republican moderates, we have passed Medicaid out of the House three times in the last four years, all over the objection of the ultra-conservative Republican House leadership. Those three bills were sent to the even more conservative Republican Senate where they did not receive enough votes to pass. To NOT pass Medicaid expansion in this time of an unprecedented pandemic is heartless, politically motivated and economically devastating.

Accepting federal dollars for Medicaid expansion should be a top priority for the next Legislature. Not accepting such federal help, which has been in part paid for by Kansas taxpayers, has cost the state over almost four BILLION dollars in much needed revenue, denied adequate health care to thousands of Kansans, and put tremendous and unnecessary strain on our entire health care system. Lack of Medicaid expansion has put some Kansas hospitals out of business, and now threatens to eliminate over two dozen others. This, in turn, has put the lives and well-being of many Kansans at risk. It has also put at risk the economic future and the very existence of a number of small towns across the state.

KANSAS HAS THE MOST RESTRICTIVE ABORTION LAWS IN THE COUNTRY. AS A LEGISLATOR, WOULD YOU SUPPORT REDUCING THESE RESTRICTIONS? YES
The following is my position on abortion and a woman's right to choose. It is the text from a guest column I wrote earlier this year for the Kansas City Star:

As a member of the Kansas House of Representatives I can honestly say that I believe there is not a single member of the House that would not like to find ways to lower the number of abortions in Kansas. That being said I voted NO on the Constitutional Amendment on abortion that came before the House last Friday.

I voted against the Amendment because I believe it falsely promised a simplistic answer to a very complicated problem. It offered a "Just say No" approach to the abortion issue which has been tried before and was a dismal and sometimes fatal approach for both mother and fetus.

This was a politically motivated amendment aimed at furthering the political careers of some in leadership positions in the House and Senate. This amendment, would have continued to deeply divide us as legislators and Kansans. The Amendment was poorly written and the conservatives were insisting it be placed on the August ballot knowing that August elections draw the least interest and the fewest voters.

Over 140,000 Kansas women have no access to family planning services including birth control. If the conservatives were seriously interested in lowering the number of abortions in Kansas, rather than promoting their own self-serving political interests, they would support more easily available and affordable access to contraception as well as more comprehensive sex education. They would also support the funding necessary to place more counselors and more psychologists in our public schools.

If they were really interested in lowering abortions they would support expanding Medicaid. Medicaid expansion would give low income pregnant women, who might not be able to afford another child, the comfort of knowing that she and her child would have access to affordable, quality healthcare if she carried that child to term. They would support the expansion of post-natal medical care; expand the availability of pre-K classes in our public schools and provide better job training opportunities for low income mothers. All of these programs would give low income pregnant women hope that they would be able to care for and financially provide for a child.

I would also like to see the formation of a bipartisan task force of women legislators to work on a practical plan to address lowering the abortion rate in Kansas. Such a bipartisan task force of women legislators was instrumental in creating a plan which helped overturn the Brownback "tax experiment" in 2017. Such a task force could be instrumental in developing a workable plan to address the abortion issue. I doubt that leadership in the House and Senate would support the formation of such a task force so it may be up to individual rank and file women legislators in the House and Senate to establish their own ad hoc task force.

Kansans have a history of being able to solve complicated problems. We have the ability to address the abortion issue through a process of discussion, compromise and cooperation. The "Just say No" Constitutional Amendment is not the answer to this problem and that is why it was rejected by the Kansas House.

The Kansas Legislature should now try to craft an abortion reduction solution that could be a national model. Would this be easy, absolutely not, but as John Kennedy said "We don't do this because it is easy, we do this because it is hard". It is time we make a commitment to do the hard work necessary to accomplish a solution that is worthwhile, effective and worthy of national attention. It will be interesting to see if leadership is interested in actually finding a solution or simply promoting politics as usual.

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