Healthy Communities

The KC Chamber believes there is an undeniable link between the financial health of our businesses and the overall health and wellness of our workforce and that a healthy workforce is paramount to a vibrant regional economy. The KC Chamber supports healthcare, including behavioral health and wellness initiatives that ensure sufficient funding for providers and greater access to coverage for the uninsured. The Chamber takes the following positions:

• Medicaid Expansion
  • Support expansion of the state’s Medicaid program to close the coverage gap for working Kansans and ensure adequate funding for health care providers serving the economically disadvantaged in Kansas.
  • Support measures to prepare the state’s Medicaid system to maximize federal funding opportunities.
• Support promotion, advancement and necessary funding to elevate the stature of University of Kansas School of Medicine and the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
• Support an increase in the tax on tobacco products to help increase workforce wellness, employer productivity and reduce health care costs.
• Preserve the right of local governments to implement Tobacco 21 and other policies that improve consumer and community health.
• The KC Chamber is generally opposed to health care benefit mandates and provider mandates.

The KC Chamber believes there is an undeniable link between the financial health of our businesses and the overall health and wellness of our workforce and that a healthy workforce is paramount to a vibrant regional economy. The KC Chamber supports healthcare, including behavioral health and wellness initiatives that ensure sufficient funding for providers and greater access to coverage for the uninsured sufficient funding for providers and greater access to coverage for the uninsured. The Chamber takes the following positions:

• Support legislation that creates a fully-operational state-wide prescription drug monitoring program.
• Maintain and advance increased access to Medicaid for low-income, vulnerable and uninsured residents of Missouri and for healthcare providers serving the economically disadvantaged in Missouri. Assure strong Federal Reimbursement Allowance funding for providers.
• The KC Chamber is generally opposed to health care benefit mandates and provider mandates.

There is an undeniable link between the financial health of our businesses and the overall health and wellness of our workforce and a healthy workforce is paramount a vibrant regional economy. The KC Chamber has long recognized these links and has introduced a workplace wellness program, Healthy KC, to address health issues that most greatly impact our community and workforce. Furthermore, the Chamber supports efforts to help businesses reduce costs and regulatory burdens of providing health care coverage, wellness support, and education of medical professionals and encourages ongoing efforts to improve access to quality health care.

• Pair any reforms of the ACA with provisions designed to stabilize the health insurance marketplace. 
• Ensure a fair and competitive market for health insurance providers and marketplace alternatives that allow individuals and businesses to obtain affordable health insurance coverage.
• Postpone the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) cuts permanently. (Any freestanding repeal of the ACA must also fully repeal the Act’s steep cuts to hospital payments - particularly Medicaid and Medicare DSH.)
• Enact no reforms that disadvantage states that did not expand Medicaid under the ACA. 

Medicaid and Other Health Care Measures

The Chamber supports the following:

• Preservation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 
• A Medicaid structure that increases efficiencies and avoids cost shifting to state budgets and maintains provider taxes at levels that allow Missouri and Kansas to sustain vital safety net coverage for children and families.
• Adoption of a definition for full-time employment that aligns with that of the business community.
• Appropriate medical malpractice liability reform to protect access to affordable, quality health care.
• Policies to acknowledge the value of “Trauma-Informed Care” and treatment and prevention measures to improve the health and resiliency of those who suffer the effects of childhood trauma.