In three weeks, more than 400 poor and disabled Kansans will be dropped from state-funded welfare programs that provide cash assistance and access to basic health care.

“Not exactly what you’d call a happy new year,” said Paul Johnson, director of the Public Assistance Coalition of Kansas, a church-sponsored group.

The cuts in aid will affect disabled, childless adults who have been on General Assistance and MediKan for at least two years.

At least nine of those affected by the Jan. 1 cutoff live in Douglas County.

“We’ve worked very hard to let our people know this is coming and to get them to understand the implications,” said Arthurine Criswell, director of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services’ area office in Lawrence.

Criswell said eight of the nine in Douglas County were physically disabled; one is considered mentally ill. Some are thought to be homeless.

Attempts to reach the nine for comment were unsuccessful.

Caught in a crunch

The cuts are expected to save the state $1.4 million in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and $3.1 million in fiscal 2005.

Funds restored for social services (4-30-02)More about General AssistanceMore about Medikan and state medical assistance

Historically, General Assistance and MediKan have provided a state-funded safety net for disabled adults unable to work and awaiting Social Security disability payments, a process that takes from six months to two years.

Caught in a budget crunch of historic proportions, Kansas lawmakers in 2002 limited the programs’ eligibility to two years, setting the stage for a July 1, 2004, cutoff. The 2003 Legislature made the cuts effective six months earlier, Jan. 1.

“We did a lot of things this year and the year before that really impacted the most needy individuals in our society — this is certainly one of them,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, a member of the budget subcommittee that oversees SRS spending.

Today, about 3,950 adults are on General Assistance and MediKan.

“The number tends to be very fluid,” said Dennis Priest, an SRS program administrator whose duties includes oversight of General Assistance and MediKan.

After January, another 50 to 100 recipients will lose their General Assistance and MediKan eligibility each month.

It’s unclear how those affected by the cuts will fare. They will remain eligible for food stamps.

Lawrence concerns

“I’m very concerned about this,” said Trish Stucky, director of adult services at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. “There are many, many people who are not eligible for Social Security disability, but who are, in fact, disabled. This leaves them with no other resource.”

Of the recipients who are mentally ill, Stucky said, many depend on MediKan for their medications.

Priest said SRS expected most of these people to be eligible for assistance through other programs. But Stucky said the programs were loaded with eligibility hurdles that few will clear.

“The programs they’re talking about are very limited,” she said.

The loss of MediKan is expected to be more troublesome than the loss of General Assistance payments, which are limited to $140 a month.

“I’m sure this’ll mean even more people for us — if they’re poor, uninsured and live in Douglas County, they’re ours,” said Nikki King, executive director at Health Care Access, a Lawrence-based medical clinic for the area’s uninsured.

“This comes at a time when we’re the most backlogged that I’ve ever seen in my five years here,” King said. “We’ve had to turn people away at our walk-in clinic because there are more than we can see, and there’s at least a three-week wait for scheduled appointments.”

King attributed the increased demand to growing numbers of “newly unemployed, newly uninsured.”