To the editor:

In 2018 I moved to Kansas from West Virginia. The Mountain State suffers from its own brand of political insanity, but at least its legislators had the common sense and decency to expand Medicaid. As a result, the rate of uninsured West Virginians dropped from 35% to 14% with small towns and rural areas benefiting the most. One study shows that the burden of uncompensated care upon hospitals fell by 50%.

But here in the Sunflower State our political leaders are quite willing for rural hospitals to close and for thousands of unemployed Kansans to bear alone the cost of any treatment they might need. Knowing that a majority of Kansans favor expansion, and that the measure would pass if brought to a vote, Republicans still refuse to allow it. No, they are more interested in stripping the legitimate power of our governor simply because she is a Democrat. In the midst of a pandemic, playing partisan politics is more important than the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens or the availability of health care in our rural counties. This is an epic failure of government with a potentially heavy cost in human lives. It is indefensible. Shame on Republican leadership in Kansas! And shame on all of us for tolerating such a thing. We must vote these people out of office at our earliest opportunity.

Paul D. Romine,

Lawrence