House Speaker Ray Merrick’s strong-armed leadership style is damaging the future of Kansas

In a petty and shortsighted power play, Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick this week booted three Republicans off the committee that deals with health care because they favor expanding Medicaid eligibility.

The ousted lawmakers are Barbara Bollier of Mission Hills, a retired physician; Don Hill of Emporia, a pharmacist; and Susan Concannon of Beloit, who founded and operated a foundation to support the small hospital and rural health care in her community.

With their departure, the Health and Human Services Committee will lose its three members with the most direct experience in health care. And with Bollier and Concannon gone, the committee will be made up entirely of men, even though it is likely to consider issues sensitive to women.

Drafting good legislation for Kansas is rarely a priority for Merrick, a Republican from Stilwell. His goal is to squelch knowledgeable, independent voices on an important issue. Merrick has also purged the education committee of legislators who disagree with him and Gov. Sam Brownback on school funding and other matters.

His latest destructive move comes as more lawmakers appear to be open to ideas for expanding Medicaid eligibility.

A recent forum in Wichita ramped up interest in a plan similar to Indiana’s, which offers high-deductible insurance plans to low-income adults while contributing to accounts to help recipients pay out-of-pocket costs. Recipients must pay a portion of their premiums.

Significantly, Senate Vice President Jeff King has expressed an interest in moving forward. “Saying ‘no’ to everything has to stop being a viable political option because there are real lives that are being affected,” King said at the forum. His district includes Independence, Kan., where a hospital recently closed because of funding troubles.

But saying “no” remains Merrick’s preferred option.

“Kansans oppose expanding Obamacare, a program that has busted budget after budget in states that have expanded it,” he said in a statement.

The speaker is trying to confuse the issue. A recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that, while new enrollment and overall Medicaid spending was much higher in states that expanded eligibility, growth in actual state spending on Medicaid was higher in states that didn’t expand eligibility. That’s because the federal government has so far picked up the full cost of the expansion.

The expansion states expect overall costs to begin to level off along with enrollment. And many report savings in areas such as mental health spending, as those costs are picked up by the Medicaid program.

Cost issues ought to receive a vigorous debate in the health committee, along with the benefits of a better insured population. But Merrick doesn’t want to have that conversation.

Intolerance of opposing viewpoints has become a trademark of Brownback and his conservative Legislature. Brownback led the way with his mostly successful campaign to run moderate Republicans out of office in 2012.

But as the state continues to struggle with finances and morale it’s worth asking: How’s that strong-armed leadership style working out for Kansas?

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 7:23 PM with the headline "House Speaker Ray Merrick’s strong-armed leadership style is damaging the future of Kansas."