Jim McLean, Kansas News Service
Stories by Jim McLean, Kansas News Service
Southeast Kansas counties still rank low for health
A cluster of counties in southeast Kansas are among the least healthy in the state, according to new rankings released Wednesday. Four of the five state’s unhealthiest counties — Woodson, Cherokee, Greenwood and Labette — are in southeast Kansas. Several other counties in the region rank among the bottom 10. But the director of an initiative launched…
The Kansas summer-meals program isn’t reaching enough children. Some advocates are working to change that.
The state of Kansas and four nonprofit organizations are seeking federal approval to conduct an experiment that they hope will boost participation in a summer meals program that now is serving only a fraction of eligible children. Led by the Kansas State Department of Education, the coalition is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to...
Thousands Of Kansans, Missourians Could Lose Health Coverage If Court Erases Subsidies
More than 300,000 consumers in Kansas and Missouri have a stake in the case argued Wednesday in the U.S. Supreme Court over a provision in the Affordable Care Act. The vast majority of people who purchased Affordable Care Act coverage in both states qualified for federal tax credits. But they could lose those credits if...
Big jumps in healthcare.gov sign-up for Kansas and Missouri
Obamacare enrollment grew by nearly 70 percent in both Kansas and Missouri during the most recent sign-up period, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Brownback re-election is a ‘low point,’ says Sebelius
Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius didn’t mince words when asked about the direction of Kansas politics during an event Thursday night at the Dole Institute of Politics. Making one of her first Kansas public appearances since stepping down in June as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sebelius called the re-election...
Health groups support cigarette tax increase for Kansas
A coalition of health organizations is supporting Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s call for a big increase in the state’s cigarette tax. Brownback is proposing to raise the tax by $1.50 per pack, increasing it from 79 cents to $2.29. The governor wants to use the approximately $81 million in additional revenue to close a gaping...
Will Kansans support lowering the sales tax on ‘healthy’ food?
A Kansas City-based nonprofit organization says a recent poll shows widespread support for exempting some foods from the Kansas sales tax. Ashley Jones-Wisner, state policy manager for KC Healthy Kids, says the survey conducted for the Kansas Health Foundation showed that 86.6 percent of Kansans supported exempting fruits and vegetables from the state sales tax.
Group seeks to get rid of Kansas sales tax on food
Led by KC Healthy Kids, a nonprofit organization supported in part by the Kansas Health Foundation, a coalition is being formed to guide a legislative effort to exempt food from the state sales tax.
KCK ‘healthy campus’ approves new master plan
A multimillion-dollar plan to transform downtown Kansas City, Kan., into a national model is one step closer to reality. The Unified Government Board of Commissioners last week unanimously approved a new master development plan designed to help improve the health of Kansas City and other Wyandotte County residents by providing a state-of-the-art community center, more...
Medicaid expansion still on table in Kansas, Missouri following elections
Kansas hospitals are moving ahead with plans to put a Medicaid expansion plan before lawmakers despite election results that returned Gov. Sam Brownback to office and solidified conservatives’ control of the Legislature. Democrat Paul Davis favored expansion but came up short in his bid to upset Brownback, a Republican who thus far has opposed expansion….
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