Reps. Ward, Landwehr trade shots over managed care
for developmentally disabled
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| Ward |
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| Landwehr |
The exchange came after Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita,
and Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, tangled over an attempt by Ward to amend a bill
to take developmental disabilities out of Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to cap the
costs of the state’s Medicaid services programs.
Brownback is in the process of implementing a plan
to shift services to managed-care plans administered by for-profit insurance
companies, to be called KanCare.
Ward strongly criticized Landwehr, the chairwoman
of the Health and Human Services Committee, for delaying consideration of the
exception. At one point, he urged the House to “keep your big-boy pants on,
today’s the day.”
But as it turned out, it wasn’t the day.
Landwehr and her allies succeeded in keeping
Ward’s amendment from coming to a floor vote by getting the underlying bill
sent back to committee on a 69-54 vote.
“I would be
happy to have two or three weeks of hearings on this (disabilities) issue
because it’s major,” Landwehr said. “I understand these budgets, I actually
know some of these kids as friends and family and neighbors that are receiving
these services. I talk to the parents. To make a policy change like this on the
floor is not doing a service to them.”
Ward said after the meeting that the bill was sent
to the Appropriations Committee to kill it, but he plans to bring it up again
when the Legislature reconvenes for its wrap-up session late next month.
Providers, parents and others in the developmental
disabilities community have been lobbying for an exemption from KanCare, out of
concern that the change would be too disruptive to mentally fragile individuals
receiving home- and community-based services.
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