By JIM MCLEAN

The word audacious has a double meaning.

Depending on whom you talk to, either definition might apply to the way the Kansas Farm Bureau is proposing to rescue farmers and ranchers priced out of the health insurance marketplace set up under the federal Affordable Care Act.

It’s either a bold and daring move. Or, it’s presumptuous, bordering on brazen.

The powerful ag lobbying organization is petitioning lawmakers for what amounts to carte blanche authority to develop and market health coverage free of state and federal oversight.

Opponents are warning of dire consequences for consumers if lawmakers okay the proposal.

But Terry Holdren, CEO of the Kansas Farm Bureau, said the failure of traditional insurers and government to address the plight of farm and ranch families left the organization with little choice but to step forward with a potential solution.

“Had current providers in the marketplace taken the initiative to… develop more affordable solutions, we wouldn’t be here today,” Holdren said Wednesday in testimony to the Kansas Senate committee considering the Farm Bureau’s bill.

Most farmers and ranchers make too much to qualify for federal subsidies that help low-income people purchase individual coverage in the ACA marketplace, Holdren said. Still, many can’t afford the rapidly rising cost of non-group coverage.

In his testimony, Holdren cited a national survey in which 65 percent of farmers identified the cost of health insurance as the “most significant threat” to their livelihood.

It’s a big worry for Tim Franklin, who grows corn and wheat on a fourth-generation family farm near Goodland. Testifying in favor of the Farm Bureau bill, Franklin told lawmakers that he’s paying nearly $24,000 in premiums this year to cover his family. Out-of-pocket expenses could amount to another $10,000.

“To say that providing workable and affordable health coverage for our family is challenging is a bit of an understatement,” Franklin said.

Insurance that isn’t

The bill under consideration would allow the Farm Bureau, which already sells property and casualty insurance, to market health coverage that isn’t technically insurance.

That technical distinction would exempt the organization from federal rules that, among other things, require insurers to offer coverage to anyone regardless of the health status.

“This legislation… would give us the ability to say ‘no’ to folks if they don’t meet our underwriting standards,” Holdren said when briefing members of the Legislature’s Rural Caucus.

In addition to rejecting people with costly, life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer, Farm Bureau could deny coverage to those with chronic ailments like diabetes and high blood pressure.

The ability to screen policyholders — a standard insurance company practice prior to enactment of the ACA — would help keep the cost of Farm Bureau plans relatively low, Holdren said.

“We believe that we can offer products to our members that are 30 percent or lower than the cost of Affordable Care Act products,” he said.

The ACA requires insurers to cover “10 essential benefits.” In addition to hospitalization and preventive office visits, they include maternity care, emergency services and prescription drugs.

Exactly what the Farm Bureau plans would cover hasn’t been decided, Holdren said. But, he told lawmakers, it was safe to assume they would include many but not all of the ACA-mandated benefits.

Playing by different rules

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state’s largest insurer, is urging lawmakers to reject Farm Bureau’s proposal.

“We think the whole concept is unfair,” BCBS lobbyist Brad Smoot told the Senate insurance committee.

Unfair to both consumers and other insurers because it would allow the Farm Bureau to set prices based on its ability to reject potentially costly applicants.

“Nobody else can do that,” he said.

Likewise, Smoot said, the Kansas insurance commissioner would have no authority to review the Farm Bureau’s rates or resolve consumer complaints.

“I just wonder who they’re going to call,” he said. “If they can’t call the insurance department, they may have to call you (lawmakers).”

Rising health care costs are pushing up the cost of coverage, Smoot said. Allowing a single player in the marketplace to suspend the rules and return to practices that exclude those who most need coverage won’t solve that problem, he said.

Medica, a nonprofit Minnesota-based insurance company that competes with BCBS in Kansas’ ACA marketplace, is also fighting Farm Bureau’s entry into the market.

Noah Tabor, a lobbyist for the company, said allowing the ag organization to “siphon” healthy people out of the insurance pool would force costs up for everyone else and leave people with preexisting conditions fewer affordable options.

“What about the farmer with cancer?” Tabor asked members of the committee. “Who is going to stand for him or her?

“We encourage the committee to look at options… that include all Kansans,” he said.

Those options include several bills under consideration that would make it easier to establish and participate in association health plans, which Tabor said would be subject to state and federal rules.

Medica is working with the Nebraska Farm Bureau to gain legislative approval for such a plan, he said. The Iowa Farm Bureau is also seeking legislative approval to market plans exempt from state and federal rules.

The Tennessee Farm Bureau has sold coverage since the mid-1990s similar to what its Kansas counterpart is proposing. It provides similar levels of coverage to traditional health plans at lower costs because it can exclude applicants with preexisting conditions.

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

LEAVENWORTH COUNTY— One person died in a five vehicle accident just after 4p.m. Sunday in Leavenworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2017 Ford E45 driven by Michael Weis, 62, Columbia, MT, was westbound on Interstate 70 just east of Tonganoxie.

The vehicle rear-ended a 2014 Chevy Cruz driven by Tristan Kuritz, 21, Lawrence.  The collision pushed the Chevy into a 2017 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Rachel Jones, 33, Beloit.  The Dodge was pushed into a 2011 Star Bus driven by Roger Rodriguez, 64, Kansas City.

A 2017 Ford F150 driven by Robert Powell, 47, St. Robert, Mo., attempted to avoid the initial collision, swerved from the left lane to the right lane and struck the Dodge Grand Caravan.

Kuritz was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the Chevy Samantha Duckett, 21, Lawrence, was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center. Jones was transported to KU Medical Center.

Weis and Rogriguez were not injured. Four passengers on the bus reported only minor injuries. They were not wearing seat belts.

The accident investigation closed the Kansas Turnpike for several hours Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Sunday it will send 3,750 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to put up another 150 miles of concertina wire and provide other support for Customs and Border Protection.

The additions will bring the total number of active-duty troops on the border to 4,350.

The announcement is in line with what Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan had said on Tuesday when he provided estimates for the next phase of a military mission that has grown in size and length. Critics have derided it as a political ploy by the White House as President Donald Trump seeks billions to build a border wall.

Shanahan said on Tuesday that several thousand more troops would be sent mainly to install additional wire barriers and provide a large new system of mobile surveillance and monitoring of the border area. Sunday’s announcement said the mobile surveillance mission would last through Sept. 30.

Members of Congress have question whether the border mission is distracting troops from their main work of fighting extremists abroad and training for combat. The first active-duty troops were sent to the border on about Oct. 30 for a mission that was to end Dec. 15. It has since been extended twice.

“What impact does it have to readiness to send several thousand troops down to the Southern border? It interrupts their training. It interrupts their dwell time,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at a hearing on Tuesday.

Vice Adm. Mike Gilday, the director of operations for the Joint Staff, told the panel that he does not believe military readiness has been significantly affected. He said some units have missed training opportunities because of the deployment and others have seen less time at home between deployments than the military likes to provide.

But he said there is an effort to rotate service members in and out of the mission every six to eight weeks in order to minimize any impact.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has formed a political action committee to help other candidates get elected.

The Republican created a leadership PAC called Fighting for Missouri.

Leadership PACs are common. Both Republican U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt and Missouri’s former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill formed leadership PACs.

Hawley unseated McCaskill in November.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police are investing a shooting in Kansas City’s historic Jazz District that left one man dead and another man seriously injured.

Police in Kansas City, Missouri, sat the shootings happened just before 2 a.m. Sunday in the city’s historic 18th and Vine district.

The Kansas City Star reports that when officers arrived several witnesses pointed them toward a dead man in a vehicle. A short time later, the second victim arrived at a hospital with gunshot wounds.

Police believe both men were shot in the Jazz District. The victims’ names were not immediately released.

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A software company owner in northeastern Kansas has decided to open an exhibit to showcase his car collection to the public.

CivicPlus owner Ward Morgan and his wife, Brenda, have spent the past 18 months purchasing some of the vehicles that will be featured in the Midwest Dream Car Collection museum in Manhattan. Morgan plans to open the exhibit this spring.

“We’ve got about 60 cars,” Morgan said. “They’re somewhere between automotive icons and dream cars.”

Some of the vehicles include a 2014 Lamborghini Aventador, a 1961 Morgan Plus 4 Drophead Coupe and a 2019 Chevrolet Corvette.

Morgan purchased a 54,000-square-foot space property to house the cars last year. The space will also have a self-service bar, a mechanic shop and event rooms. Visitors will be able to put money on a prepaid card to purchase beer and wine while relaxing in the recreation room, Morgan said.

Morgan hopes to tell the history of each car in his exhibit, he said.

“The proceeds are all going to the museum for preservation and display of the cars,” Morgan said. “To share automotive history and also the history of automotives with people, that’s our mission.”

KANSAS CITY– Two Kansas City brothers and a Sugar Creek, Missouri woman have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in a conspiracy to commit a series of armed robberies by luring their victims with online advertisements and ambushing them.

Dylan J. Houston, 22, his brother, Andrew J. Houston, 29, and Nicole Waguespack, also known as Nicole Covey, 36, were sentenced in separate appearances before U.S. District Judge Greg Kays on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019.

Dylan Houston was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison without parole. Andrew Houston was sentenced to seven years and eight months in federal prison without parole. Waguespack was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison without parole. They are among 10 defendants who have been sentenced in this case. Two defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

Co-conspirators posted ads on several websites in order to entice customers to meet in person at area hotels, residences and apartments in Kansas City, Mo. When the customers arrived, co-conspirators were lying in wait, armed with firearms and weapons that appeared to be firearms. They ambushed and robbed the customers at gunpoint. They often committed more than one robbery in a night.

According to court documents, the proceeds of the robberies was divided up and usually used to pay for narcotics or to pay for a room where the co-conspirators could use narcotics. When confronting the victim, the co-conspirators used verbal threats, pointed real and fake guns at them, physically hit them, and intimidated them. Records obtained from social media services and hotels corroborate statements by participants that only a small percentage of the victims called the police to report their robbery.

Dylan Houston pleaded guilty on July 12, 2018, to his role in the armed robbery conspiracy as well as to three counts of armed robbery. According to court documents, Dylan Houston was one of the enforcers in this violent robbery scheme. Once a victim was led into a room, he surprised the victim and used firearms and threats of physical violence to intimidate him and take electronics and cash. Dylan Houston admitted that he participated in three armed robberies, including one robbery in which the victim, after being forced into his truck at gunpoint, later jumped out of the moving vehicle while driving at highway speeds, in fear for his life. In another robbery, Dylan Houston stole a firearm from a victim that was later used in subsequent robberies.

Andrew Houston pleaded guilty on July 11, 2018, to his role in the armed robbery conspiracy, as well as to three counts of armed robbery. Andrew Houston served as a look-out for multiple robberies, notifying co-defendants about the arrival of victims and watching for law enforcement response. He also shared in the proceeds from the robberies.

Waguespack pleaded guilty on May 3, 2017, to her role in the armed robbery conspiracy as well as to five counts of armed robbery. Waguespack created dozens of online ads designed to lure men to robberies. When victims arrived, she met the victims at the door. As part of the plan, she then excused herself to the restroom while the other co-conspirators surprised and robbed the victims with threats of violence and firearms.