Lawrence Journal World: New reports show Kansas’ health ranking is plummeting

By Lauren Fox | Dec. 13, 2019

Two recently released reports have some Kansas policymakers on edge about the health of Kansans and adamant that expanding Medicaid coverage will help.

One report showed that, since 1990, Kansas’ health ranking has fallen more than that of any other state. The other showed that, in a two-year period, the rate of uninsured Kansas children under the age of 6 has risen by one percentage point.

Since the first America’s Health Rankings Report, released in 1990, to this year’s, released on Dec. 5, Kansas has fallen from the 12th healthiest state in the U.S. to No. 29, experiencing the greatest rank decrease of all the states.

“This is indeed a call to action, and we must do more in order to fund the health care improvements that this state needs so badly,” Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Thursday at the meeting of the Governor’s Council on Medicaid Expansion. Norman is a member of the council.

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