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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Kansas and Missouri Legislators decidedly NOT doing their jobs

Yet more on the Kansas and Missouri legislators lately, not doing their jobs. From Dave Helling in The Star earlier this week: Kansas, Missouri unlikely to meet deadline on health care "Kansas and Missouri are almost certain to miss an end-of-the-year deadline for establishing a key component of the nation’s health care law — health insurance 'exchanges' where individuals and businesses can compare and purchase coverage." Forget that thousands--at least--of people in both states don't have and need health care. Forget that this could help lower the cost of health insurance in both states. Sure, forget that. And as if all this, above, weren't bad enough, check this out: "Last year, Kansas declined a $31.5 million “early innovator” grant for an exchange." Nice, huh? If I were from Kansas, this is just one more of many big reasons to be angry. What you have to keep in mind is that both legislatures in these two states have Republican majorities and they don't want to appear to support the Affordable Care Act of this President. Forget that it helps their constituents. Remember, though, to put your political party first. Terrific. There are two glimmers of hope mentioned in the article. Here's the first: "If Kansas or Missouri fails to certify its plan by year’s end, the federal government is required to step in and create one." The second bit of hope is that other states are, in fact, creating their exchanges. You can bet the insurance agencies are out there now, giving untold amounts of "campaign contributions" to our lawmakers, in an effort to kill all this, lest they have to reduce our health insurance premiums. Anyway, again, thanks to both Republican Party state houses--for nothing. Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/23/3448606/kansas-missouri-unlikely-to-meet.html

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