As a nurse and grandmother, Janney Burgess has seen how tough it can be for the uninsured to pay for medical care.

“I’ve seen a grandchild have to make a trip to the hospital,” said Burgess, “and the bill was just devastating because neither one of the parents was insured.”

That’s why Burgess, a Lawrence resident now retired from nursing, has joined “Kansas Health Care for All.” The new group aims to pressure government officials to find a way to make sure no one does without health insurance.

The group, which was started in July, has been drawing dozens of people to its meetings even though a new report due today from the Census Bureau suggests Kansas has a smaller proportion of uninsured people than the rest of the nation.

According to that report, an average of 11.4 percent of the state’s population was uninsured for at least a year between 1999 and 2001. That’s less than the national average of 14.5 percent during the same period.

But the overall state rate means about 300,000 Kansans don’t have health insurance.

“That’s not good enough,” Burgess said. “That’s a lot of people. What are they going to do if they get sick or hurt?”

Now, the group must convince candidates for office to think the same way.

Incremental approach

Michael Fox, an associate professor of health policy and management in Kansas University’s School of Medicine, said that since the Clinton administration’s failed attempt at universal health care in the early 1990s, there had been “incremental” attempts to broaden coverage.

But with insurance costs rising and employers either passing along a greater share of those costs to workers or eliminating the benefit entirely Fox said the incremental approach had failed. More than 40 million Americans are uninsured.

“What we’re seeing in health care is an incredible strain on services right now,” said Fox, who has been attending Kansas Health Care for All meetings. “I think at every level, what I’m seeing is a shortage of resources to adequately get the job done.”

Douglas County is faring better than most places, but thousands are still uninsured in the county, local officials said.

There have been efforts to help the uninsured get health care.

Health Care Access was started 14 years ago as a “temporary” effort, said Nikki Rhea, executive director of the program. But it seems to have become permanent.

“We don’t see an end in sight,” Rhea said. “Statistically, we know that 9.3 percent of Douglas Countians don’t have health care of any sort. A solution is needed.”

‘Not working’

Such concerns drew the attention of the Older Women’s League in Lawrence, which decided to work under the auspices of the Universal Health Care Action Network, a national organization promoting passage by 2004 of a universal health care system in the United States.

The Older Women’s League spawned Kansas Health Care for All. So far, the group’s meetings have drawn mostly a mixture of social workers and health care professionals from across northeast Kansas.

“It just is a system that is not working,” said Hilda Enoch of Lawrence, the new group’s president. “Fire services and police services are offered to everybody, and this should be like that.”

The group, in conjunction with the national organization, plans a grassroots campaign to press candidates in state and federal elections to make universal health coverage a priority.

“Our hope is it can be such a groundswell of public concern that we can bring this about,” Burgess said.

Not hot

Universal health insurance doesn’t seem to be a hot topic for Kansas’ gubernatorial candidates, however. Republican Tim Shallenburger’s Web site doesn’t mention health care in its list of top issues. Democrat Kathleen Sebelius’ site talks in general terms about putting “patients before profits.”

A spokeswoman for her campaign said Sebelius, the state insurance commissioner, favors expanding a state insurance program that covers children. Sebelius also was in charge of a study last year of the causes of Kansans being uninsured.

“I know if she’s governor, she’ll take the information from that study and try to expand access,” said Nicole Corcoran-Basso, the spokeswoman. “Health care has been a huge issue for her, a big concern.”

A spokesman for Shallenburger responded to the query mostly by taking potshots at Sebelius, saying she forced health insurance companies out of Kansas through over-regulation. The free market should be allowed to fix the problem, he said.

“Though Kathleen has been on Clinton health care task forces and believes in a government-run system, Tim believes we need to make the marketplace work,” said Bob Murray, the spokesman. “More companies writing insurance in Kansas means more competition, more choices and lower costs.”

All of which leaves Fox, the KU professor, thinking things might get worse before they get better.

“I think people have to be more aware of the looming difficulties,” he said. “I don’t call it a crisis, because it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s more of a long-standing breakdown of the support systems for health care.”