The trend of Kansas Republicans crossing party lines to support Democrats running against GOP conservatives has now reached the insurance commissioner’s race.
Republican incumbent Sandy Praeger, who’s not running for re-election after three terms, endorsed Democrat Dennis Anderson on Tuesday at a campaign event staged at Brewster Place, a Topeka, Kan., retirement community.
“The people of our department have worked so hard the past 12 years to place policy above politics, and I would hate to see politics controlling the decisions in the insurance department,” Praeger said. “And that’s why I think it’s so important that we have an insurance commissioner that will be dedicated to good public policy and not use the office for political gain.”
Praeger, a moderate Republican who bucked the party line in supporting the federal health reform law, is among more than 100 current and former GOP office holders who have endorsed Paul Davis, the Democrat challenging Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.
Several prominent moderate Republicans also recently endorsed Jean Schodorf’s campaign to unseat conservative Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Schodorf, a Republican when she represented Wichita in the Kansas Senate from 2001 to 2013, switched parties to run against Kobach.
Praeger said she is supporting Anderson in large part because he favors expanding Medicaid eligibility to more poor adults and because he opposes creation of a multi-state compact to transfer control of federal health care programs to member states.
A veteran of three statewide campaigns, Praeger said she believes her endorsement sends a potentially significant signal to voters trying to decide which candidate to support in the down-ballot race.
“I hope it helps, because that’s why I’m doing it,” she said. “I really want the department to be represented by an independent voice; someone who will listen to what Kansans need and not be guided by a political ideology.
Ken Selzer, the Republican nominee for commissioner, is strongly opposed to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion but supports the health care compact.
“I am for anything that brings decision-making to a more local level,” Selzer said in a July interview.
Last session, lawmakers approved and Gov. Sam Brownback signed legislation making Kansas a member of the nine-state health care compact. However, Congress must sanction the compact before member states can operationalize it and demand funding in the form of block grants.
Both Anderson and Praeger say they oppose the compact because it could result in a state takeover of Medicare, the federal health care program created in the mid-1960s that provides coverage for more than 450,000 Kansas seniors.
“I can only guess that they might call it Brownback care,” Anderson said, noting that the state’s growing budget problems could force it to cut Medicare benefits and reimbursements to doctors and hospitals should the state assume control of the program.
“The compact would put benefits in danger,” he said.
Supporters contend the compact won’t affect Medicare benefits and that opponents are engaging in scare tactics to gain the votes of seniors.
“They’re saying that Medicare could be taken away from people, and that’s not true,” said Rep. Keith Esau, an Olathe Republican and compact supporter. “The health care compact allows Kansas to manage it for ourselves instead of having the federal government manage it, but it doesn’t allow us to rob it or take it away.”
As passed, the health reform law called for the expansion of the other large federal health care program that starts with an “M” – Medicaid. However, in upholding the constitutionality of the overall law, the U.S. Supreme Court left the eligibility question up to individual states.
To date, 28 states and the District of Columbia have expanded eligibility to low-income adults making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty threshold — about $16,000 for an individual and under $33,000 for a family of four. However, Kansas is one of 23 states that have opted not to expand their Medicaid programs.
Currently in Kansas, able-bodied adults without children aren’t eligible for Medicaid regardless of income. Adults with children are eligible only if they earn less than 32 percent of the poverty level, which annually is about $3,700 for an individual and $7,600 for a family of four.
The decision not to expand Medicaid is costing Kansas hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars, according to several studies. One of the most recent, a study released in August by the nonpartisan Urban Institute, found that if Kansas sticks with its decision it will cost hospitals in the state $2.6 billion between 2013 and 2022.
If elected, Anderson said he would push for Medicaid expansion and would be open to considering the more private sector-oriented approach favored by some Republican governors across the country.
“It’s important to reach across the aisle and work out a compromise,” he said.
The Legislature’s refusal to consider an expansion bill is unacceptable, Anderson said.
“We have hospitals that are struggling, we have communities that are struggling, we have people that are struggling,” he said. “We ought to engage at least in a debate about how to expand it.”
Selzer, the Republican nominee, opposes Medicaid expansion. Creating more jobs is the best way to provide insurance coverage to more low-income adults, he said.
Dr. Bart Ramsey, a retired Topeka pediatrician and registered Republican, said Praeger’s endorsement of Anderson carries weight with him.
“I am interested in all citizens getting health care,” Ramsey said. “I think universal health care is a necessity.”
