TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new study says expanding Medicaid in Kansas would have a net cost of $47.4 million in the first year.

The nonprofit Kansas Health Institute estimated in the study released Tuesday that an additional 130,000 low-income adults and children would sign up if the program was expanded. That accounts for adults who already are eligible but may not know it, as well as those who already have insurance but would switch if state assistance were available.

The number is lower than previous estimates that 150,000 would sign up for the coverage. KHI policy executive and lead author Kari Bruffett says that’s because economic improvements have left fewer people uninsured.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has made expansion a top priority, although Republican leaders are opposed.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Senate has approved legislation aimed at sharply limiting the large legal awards coming out of the St. Louis court system in cases where multiple plaintiffs combine similar lawsuits.

Republicans have tried for years to outlaw awards like one in February in which 22 women were awarded $4.7 billion after claiming that Johnson & Johnson baby powder caused their ovarian cancer. Many of the plaintiffs were not from Missouri.

The attempt to change the law was helped this year when the Missouri Supreme Court halted the practice after the Johnson & Johnson verdict was reached, said Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, who led the GOP effort.

Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, acknowledged that the current practice needs to be addressed but said the proposal approved Monday could have the unintended consequence of clogging the court system if each individual must file a separate lawsuit.

Sifton, an attorney who is considering running for governor next year, held an overnight filibuster on the proposal last month to find time for a compromise. His fellow Democrats argued during the filibuster that the proposed change would make the claims process inconvenient and more expensive.

“I think plaintiff joinder is something that allows us to resolve important disputes more efficiently,” Sifton said. “In that regard, I am still concerned you are going to see more lawsuits than you otherwise would.”

The new proposal exempted lawsuits that were filed before the state Supreme Court’s decision and that are scheduled to go to trial before Aug. 28.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Stephanie Mott, a well-known advocate for LGBTQ rights in Kansas, has died.

Pastor Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Topeka says Mott was hospitalized Sunday after apparently suffering a heart attack. She died Monday at the age of 61.

Mott was a mental health clinician at Valeo in Topeka. She led the Kansas Democratic Party’s LGBT caucus, and managed the Topeka chapter of Equality Kansas.

We are all devastated by the loss of Stephanie Mott. We cannot find adequate words to express our grief at her passing, but we will find solace in the knowledge that her life and her work will make Kansas a better place for future generations.
#ksleg #lgbtq pic.twitter.com/f16InIHkMp

— Equality Kansas (@KansasEquality) March 4, 2019

Kansas Democratic Party chairwoman Vicki Hiatt and executive director Ethan Corson said in a statement that Mott was courageous in the face of cowardice while advocating for vulnerable people.

Equality Kansas said in a statement that the group will find solace in the knowledge that Mott’s work will make Kansas a better place for future generations.

By JIM MCLEAN

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital say a change in the distribution of livers across the country could result in Kansans waiting longer for life-saving transplants.

So they’re backing a bill in the Kansas Legislature that would allow residents who donate their organs to specify whether they want them used to benefit Kansas transplant patients.

“The purpose of the Kansas Donor Rights act is to bring the conversation to the forefront,” said Sean Kumer, a liver transplant surgeon at KU.

Changes in the system used to distribute livers for transplant essentially nationalizing the system have yet to be finalized.

For years, organs have been distributed within regions. That worked well for states, like Kansas, where donor rates were high. It worked less well in states, such as New York and California, where the need for donated organs was high but donor rates were relatively low.

“Here in the Midwest we have a very giving population,” Kumer said, noting that Kansas’ donor rate is consistently around 80 percent compared to 55 percent on the East and West coasts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered the scrapping of the geography-based system after six patients awaiting transplants in California, New York and Massachusetts sued the agency.

“The practical effect of the new policy will be to redistribute livers from states and regions with high rates of organ donation to areas that have historically underperformed,” U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roy Blunt of Missouri said recently in a guest commentary in The Kansas City Star.

The new policy would disproportionately affect patients rural areas, the senators said.

“This shortsighted liver allocation policy … will not only mean fewer life-saving organs in our part of the country, but it will also adversely affect health outcomes throughout the Midwest,” they said.

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Sander Florman, director of transplantation for New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, defended the new allocation system.

“In a system that is fundamentally handicapped by having too few organs for too many patients that need them, decisions need to be made and should favor saving the most lives and helping the sickest of our patients first,” Florman said.

If that is the criteria, Kumer said, preference should be given to regions where higher percentages of patients are dying while awaiting surgery. In Kansas, he said, approximately 20 percent of liver transplant patients die on the waiting list compared to about 8 percent in New York.

“Our (mortality) numbers are going to increase and theirs are going to decrease and that’s just not the way we should be running our system,” Kumer said.

The legality of the Kansas legislation could hinge on whether the courts buy the argument that an organ donation is a personal gift, Kumer said.

“It’s a gift, not a natural resource,” he said. “Donors and their families … should have the choice of where they want their organs to go.”

The bill was introduced late,  but its chances of passing are improved by the fact that it has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican.

“It will get a hearing soon and we will address it this session,” Denning said.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks.