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Governor Laura Kelly’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice Releases Recommendations Inbox

Dec. 10, 2020 TOPEKA –Governor Laura Kelly today announced that her Commission on Racial Equity and Justice has released to the public their initial report on law enforcement and policing in Kansas. In June of 2020, Governor Laura Kelly signed Executive Order No. 20-48, establishing the Governor’s Commission on Racial Equity and Justice. The Commission […]

Pandemic, Job Losses and Supreme Court Case Focus Attention on Affordable Care Act Deadline

By Tammy Worth | Dec. 8, 2020 The day after her first chemotherapy treatment in 2017, Laura Packard watched Congress vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Packard, diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s lymphoma, was a small business owner with a health policy purchased through Colorado’s marketplace. “It was terrifying,” she said. “I was […]

New Report Explains How Medicaid Expansion is Key to Ending HIV Epidemic in USA

By Adam Searing | Nov. 30, 2020 As we live through the COVID-19 pandemic, our other challenging health problems haven’t gone away. In recognition of World AIDS Day and in honor of all those whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS, I would like to focus attention on public policy options that could help finally […]

A conversation with Daniel E. Dawes on Medicaid expansion

State of the Heart is Community Care Network of Kansas‘ monthly vodcast series in which they explore themes of health-related foundational beliefs, policy development and implementation, and current/future practices with subject matter experts from across Kansas. These themes are grouped in four distinct topic areas: Community, Care, Network and Kansas. Daniel E. Dawes is a […]

Kansas Reflector: Kansas mother makes plea for Medicaid expansion after donations spare her from death

By Noah Taborda | Nov. 29, 2020 TOPEKA — For months after being diagnosed with an advanced stage of uterine cancer, Shelby Fehrenbacher resigned herself to death. Fehrenbacher, a 29-year old mother of four living in Topeka, was diagnosed with the deadly disease last year. Doctors told her she needed surgery to survive, but she […]

Kansas Reflector: These 3 things will make rural Kansas communities healthier

By David Jordan | Nov. 14, 2020 A strong health system is critical to thriving rural communities and the health of rural Kansans. Even before COVID-19 began surging in rural Kansas, it was becoming more difficult to sustain health care services in a changing Kansas, where the rural health system is starved of resources with […]

Kansas elections set up hidden referendum on Medicaid expansion

By Joel Mathis | Oct. 26, 2020 David Larson was alarmed in June when he started feeling sick. The coronavirus was spreading in Kansas, and the 56-year-old Wichita resident – who lives with diabetes, high blood pressure and clinical depression – knew his preexisting conditions made him vulnerable to the illness. “I came down with […]

Kansas Speaks survey shows wide support for Medicaid expansion

A statewide poll reveals that the majority of Kansans endorse Medicaid expansion. The annual survey by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University indicated that 71.8% of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that expanding Medicaid would help rural Kansas hospital remain in business, and 64% strongly or somewhat agreed that the […]