To the editor:

The Kansas Public Health Association is to be commended for sponsoring legislative health forums in 15 locations throughout the state to educate and update the public about health reform. The Lawrence forum was held in the health department on April 14. Although there were name cards for five area state legislators on the podium, only two managed to show up. State Sen. Roger Pine and Rep. Paul Davis attended, while Sen. David Haley and Reps. Tom Holland and Stan Frownfelter did not. No reason for their absence was offered.

Left largely unaddressed at the forum was an explanation for the Legislature’s backtracking on a most important health care reform initiative that would have provided a premium subsidy for poor Kansans to buy health insurance, a move approved unanimously last year. The panelists’ claim that limited funding is a justification for the lawmakers’ flip-flop is unacceptable. Surely when the 2007 Legislature supported the subsidy plan, it knew that there was a price tag attached.

In Kansas, 300,000 citizens have no health insurance; many more are underinsured, and health coverage for children is woefully inadequate.

The lack of follow-through on their promise of health reform legislation this year – not to mention the irresponsible blow-off of the Lawrence forum on the part of some legislators – seems to indicate our elected representatives think that the health of Kansans is a luxury we can’t afford.

Louise Hanson,

Lawrence