Opinion: Brownback Hits a New Low in Kansas Medicaid Expansion

All of a sudden, Gov. Sam Brownback is consumed with compassion for the more than 5,000 disabled Kansans who are pleading for services.

This is new. Brownback didn’t give a rip about people with developmental and physical disabilities when he rammed through his massive tax cuts, which benefited wealthy Kansans and rendered the state unable to meet its most basic obligations.

And his administration turned a cold shoulder to the protests of families of people with developmental disabilities when they learned that decisions about their loved ones’ well being would be turned over to for-profit managed care companies.

But last week, Susan Mosier, Brownback’s acting secretary of the Department of Health and Environment, testified before a legislative committee. She said the administration wouldn’t consider expanding Medicaid eligibility for “able-bodied adults” until it had cleared the waiting lists of disabled persons needing mostly non-medical services such as occupational therapy, job training, group home placements and respite care for family members.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/barbara-shelly/article16399856.html#storylink=cpy