TOPEKA- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Shawnee County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported Ford F 250 driven by Kenneth L. Johnson, 74 Topeka was travelling westbound on U.S. 24 just west of Button Road in the passing lane.

Traffic slowed in front of the truck. The driver applied the brakes, swerved to the right, overturned and slid on its roof until it came to rest on the driver’s side door.

Johnson was transported to Stormont Vail.
The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

By Phil Galewitz
Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Tuesday’s re-election of Republican governors in closely contested races in Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, Maine and Kansas dims the chances of Medicaid expansion in those states.

Advocates hoping for Democratic victories in those states were disappointed by the outcomes, but Alaska, which also has a Republican incumbent, remains in play as an independent challenger holds a narrow lead going into a count of absentee ballots.
“No one would say it was a good night for the prospects of Medicaid expansion,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University.

Still, Alker said the playing field for Medicaid expansion didn’t shift dramatically. “The debate continues to be within the Republican party — with more pragmatic Republicans saying yes and ideologues driving the opposition. So what happens next is a good test case to see how Republicans will resolve these internal tensions.”

Even if Democrats had been victorious in governor races, they still faced a long shot getting Medicaid expansion through Republican-controlled legislatures. The one exception was Maine, where Gov. Paul LePage, who was re-elected, has five times vetoed efforts by his state’s Democratic-controlled legislature to expand the program.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has supported Medicaid expansion, but has done little to persuade state lawmakers to extend the program to 850,000 residents.

If Democratic challenger Charlie Crist had won, he would have faced strong opposition in the Republican-dominated state House, said Sean Foreman, associate professor of political science at Barry University in Miami Shores. “Scott’s victory means Medicaid expansion is dead the next four years,” he said.

Meanwhile, the future of Arkansas’ “private option” Medicaid expansion could be in trouble with the election of Republican Asa Hutchinson as governor and GOP gains in the state House and Senate. Hutchinson replaces Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who had championed the state’s expansion plan and who was barred by term limits from running.

Hutchinson has not taken a position on the program, saying he will assess its costs and benefits to “determine whether the program should be terminated or continued.” Arkansas’ expansion is vulnerable because by law, the legislature must reauthorize it every year with a 75 percent majority.

In Alaska, Bill Walker, an independent candidate who favors expansion, holds a small lead over incumbent Gov. Sean Parnell, who opposes it. Should Walker prevail after absentee ballots are counted, he still must get the support of his Republican-controlled legislature. About 26,000 Alaskans would gain coverage through expansion.

Since the Supreme Court made Medicaid expansion an optional part of the Affordable Care Act, 27 states and Washington, D.C., have extended the program to individuals with incomes under $16,100. While most of those states expanded eligibility at the beginning of 2014, Michigan and New Hampshire came on later this year and Pennsylvania’s expansion will start in January.

Nationally, Medicaid enrollment has increased by more than 8 million people since last October and has been seen as the biggest factor in reducing the number of uninsured Americans by about 25 percent this year.

State lawmakers have sometimes blocked Medicaid expansion even with a supportive executive. In 2013, Democrat Terry McAuliffe had campaigned on expanding Medicaid, but after he was elected Virginia governor he was unable to persuade state lawmakers who demanded the program be reformed first.

Caroline Pearson, vice president of consulting firm Avalere Health, said expansion advocates will turn their attention to Utah, whose Republican governor hopes to take a plan to the GOP-controlled legislature, and Wyoming, where Gov. Matt Mead, also a Republican, has expressed interest in widening eligibility for Medicaid. Indiana is also negotiating with the Obama administration to expand Medicaid.

Pearson argued that Arkansas lawmakers are unlikely to unravel that state’s Medicaid expansion, which has helped more than 60,000 gain coverage. “It is incredibly difficult to take benefits away from state residents once they have been granted,” she said.

She said more Republican-led states could move ahead as the issue cools politically.

Sara Rosenbaum, professor of health policy at George Washington University, said it’s hard to tell how big an impact the election will have.

“One possibility is that now that a bitterly contested election is over, the governors may be open to discussion,” she said.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republicans in the Missouri House have unanimously chosen Rep. Todd Richardson as the new majority leader and affirmed their support for Rep. John Diehl as the next House speaker.

Wednesday’s decisions came the day after Republicans won the greatest number of seats they’ve ever had in Missouri’s House.
Diehl’s role as speaker must be approved by the full chamber in January, but Republicans easily can vote the Town and Country lawmaker in without support from Democrats.

Richardson, of Poplar Bluff, needed only Republican approval to become majority leader.

Diehl says the party’s plans for 2015 include an economic development proposal to help small businesses. Additional support for the state’s agricultural industry and a measure to incorporate more workforce preparedness into education also could come up.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Missouri’s top prosecutor has appealed a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Attorney General Chris Koster said in a news release Wednesday that the issue needed to be resolved by the Missouri Supreme Court. The announcement came after St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison said in a written ruling that Missouri’s measure recognizing marriage as only between a man and woman violates the due process and equal protection rights of the U.S. Constitution. The decision mirrored ones handed down recently in numerous other states.

The city of St. Louis issued four marriage licenses to same-sex couples in June and then quit doing so, intentionally setting up a legal challenge to the state’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has indefinitely postponed a hearing on a gay-marriage case because of a federal judge’s order in a separate lawsuit barring the state from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage.

The Kansas court issued an order Wednesday, a day before arguments from attorneys on a petition filed by Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

The court told the parties it wants to hear from them by Nov. 15 on whether it should continue to bar counties from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples and postpone Schmidt’s case until a federal lawsuit is resolved.

In the federal case, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled Tuesday that the state could not enforce its gay-marriage ban but stayed his decision to allow the state to appeal. The state did that Wednesday.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas State Board of Nursing has approved disciplinary action against a fired nurse charged with sexually assaulting three patients.

Board attorney Alma Heckler said Wednesday that no details would be provided about the type of discipline until paperwork was filed in the case against 47-year-old Dennis Clark of Gardner. That was expected to happen in the next few days.

Clark was released from the Wyandotte County Jail on Tuesday night after posting bond. He faces three counts of aggravated sexual battery. Prosecutors are urging anyone with information about other possible victims to call police.

Clark didn’t have a listed number, and his attorney didn’t return a phone message.

Prosecutors say the alleged assaults occurred from December through May while Clark worked at Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is telling the Veterans Affairs Department it needs to keep working to improve services, health care and accountability for veterans.

Obama met on Wednesday with VA Secretary Robert McDonald and his deputy, Sloan Gibson. The White House says Obama urged them to continue strengthening VA management, cutting the backlog of disability claims, speeding up access to health care and ending homelessness for veterans.

Obama nominated McDonald to head the agency in June after his former VA secretary resigned amid a nationwide scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care, and falsified records covering up the delays.

The White House says McDonald updated Obama on his plans to improve how the VA functions and what choices veterans have to access services.