Recent Kansas editorials

The Lawrence Journal-World, April 5

The Journal-World recently reported on a fun and elaborate yard sign that was placed in front of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, thanking the health care workers inside. Such signs in Lawrence could be more common than leaves in the fall or red Solo cups in Oread during Hawk Week.

In other words, there are a lot of people in the community who deserve special thanks. Health care workers are an obvious and well-deserved choice. They are facing not only dangers by exposing themselves to patients with an incurable virus, but they also are facing discomfort on other fronts too. Many are being asked to do jobs they normally don’t do, and some are undoubtedly losing hours and wages as health care facilities across the county are seeing much less business. Yes, they are ramping up for a surge, but right now business is slow as people are rightly looking for any reason to stay away from the doctor’s office or hospital.

First responders, such as police and fire, also deserve thanks. They are still interacting with a lot of people, when it would be much safer for them to be tucked in their homes. It wouldn’t be safer for us, though. Health care and first responders often are top-of-mind professions to thank.

But what about trash truck workers? They make contact with basically every household in the city in their own way, and they are doing so without any hazmat suits or other such gear. And how about the utility employees who must report to work to maintain operations at the city’s water and sewer plants? Both are vital pieces of infrastructure, and the community would have a real problem if all the trained operators fell ill. Many are likely significantly disrupting their lives to make sure that doesn’t happen.

It would be impossible to list everybody who deserves thanks, but surely one more group must be named: grocery store workers. Often grocery store clerks are some of the most entry-level positions in the labor force. Be that as it may, it is hard to think of more critical employees during this pandemic. If grocery stores were unable to reliably stay open and stocked, we would have a food crisis. America is not a land of backyard gardens anymore, and if you thought plucking your eyebrows was uncomfortable, just try plucking your own chicken for dinner.

The frontline workers in the grocery business - pharmacies too - are asked to be in uncomfortable positions, often standing directly across from us as we check out. We all should be mindful of keeping our distance and doing all we can to ensure these important workers remain healthy. They are critical to stopping this pandemic from turning into an even greater hell. On a related note, thank a few truckers too. They are traveling to a lot of places we wouldn’t, and without their efforts the grocers would have nothing to stock.

At some point we also may need to thank Congress and the president for their efforts to limit the economic pain of this pandemic. The $2 trillion relief bill was passed via an overwhelming bipartisan vote. Putting the country ahead of political interests should be expected, but it also can be worth a thank you.

However, we don’t need to offer it right now. After all, if we are tardy in thanking the federal government, that is only fair. It was tardy in preparing for a pandemic. Perhaps today isn’t the day, but soon, Americans will have every right to be damn mad at the federal government’s response to this crisis.

An honest assessment would show problems in pandemic preparation go back further than the Trump administration. But there is also no question that the president’s hunches and gut feelings about this pandemic are fair game for the election season we currently are in. Despite what your hat may say, this certainly is not great.

Thankfully, the Make America Great Again bandwagon has been parked for awhile. For the moment, could we just Make America Livable Again?

America certainly would thank those who could.

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The Manhattan Mercury, April 1

A biochemistry professor at Kansas State University has exactly the right idea: Kansas should aggressively test as many people as possible for the coronavirus.

In a letter to the editor earlier this week, Sally Newton suggested that our state could prove to the rest of the country that this is the way to stop a viral pandemic.

Kansas is not that big, relatively speaking, with a population of 2.9 million people, about a third the size of New York City. The number of confirmed cases is around 500; in New York, there are more than 47,000 confirmed cases

About 5,400 people in Kansas have been tested.

Authorities have doled out the tests in a miserly manner in our state, and in the U.S. generally, because of short supplies. We can’t blame local authorities for setting priorities in testing. It is an enormous failure on the part of the federal government.

Other countries are taking a far more aggressive approach: In Germany, they’re testing 500,000 people a week, and they’re looking to ramp up to 200,000 per day. England is aiming for 25,000 people a day by the end of April. Sweden and Austria are at 15,000 tests per day.

The consequence of a lack of testing in the U.S. has been that governments have to shut down everything in order to keep everybody away from each other. “Social distancing” is a logical response, under those circumstances, in order to keep from overwhelming the health care system. Citizens have to do their part by following those rules, and nothing we’re saying here is intended to undermine that. In other words, stay home. It’s our best shot right now.

But it’s not ideal. Shuttered businesses mean lost jobs, among other things.

In Kansas, we could pretty much test everybody if the right people and political forces got behind it. Sally Newton, the K-State biochemistry professor, said in the letter we published Sunday, that it could be called “the Kansas Experiment,” and that could show the rest of the country that it’s the way to move forward.

Mass testing could allow us to quarantine people who actually have the virus or who’ve been in contact with people carrying it. That would prevent infected people who don’t yet show symptoms from giving it to others. It could also shorten the duration of “social distancing,” if done right.

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The Topeka Capital-Journal, April 1

When the Kansas Legislature comes back to Topeka, they’ll undoubtedly take up the topic of aid to citizens impacted by our current circumstances. Expanding Medicaid is a critical need they must address, and every Republican leader who has stood in the way of passing the bill should stand down.

As the numbers of Kansans laid off from their jobs continue to skyrocket, the failure of the Legislature to expand Medicaid presents an even grimmer reality for maintaining a healthy populace.

For years we’ve advocated for expansion, believing that health care options for food service workers, truck drivers and grocery store clerks are vital to having a healthy workforce and a strong economy.

Among the primary people who would qualify for the insurance are folks working in what we now call essential businesses, but these essential jobs often don’t include health insurance. If Republican leadership hadn’t stymied expansion efforts for several years, Kansas workers would have health insurance to treat COVID-19 should they contract it while they stock grocery shelves, deliver goods to homes and prepare takeout meals.

What’s the cost of not expanding Medicaid in Kansas? The people enabling us to shelter in place safely are doing so without health insurance.

This failure to act will now have even broader consequences as there’s another sector of our population without health insurance - the newly unemployed. For the thousands of people laid off in Kansas, they lost not only their income but also their health insurance.

Men and women who routinely used their health insurance to access monthly prescriptions to manage their blood pressure, diabetes, lupus, depression and a host of other medical issues now can’t pay for expensive medications.

Because of the economic cratering caused by COVID-19, more Kansans are now facing the dilemma we’ve heard countless folks testify to the Legislature about - having to ration insulin until they could afford more; choosing between keeping the lights on or buying a life-saving prescription; forgoing doctors’ appointments for lack of ability to pay only to need expensive emergency treatment later because the problem escalated without treatment.

Our hospitals can’t withstand a greater number of patients with no ability to pay.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

A bipartisan Medicaid expansion bill that has the governor’s support and 22 sponsors in the Senate is ready to be passed. The Legislature plans to return April 27 (though this date could be delayed), and expanding Medicaid is the first piece of work they should do.

In the interim, the bright minds who crafted the legislation should confer again to determine how to enact the policy sooner than the Jan. 1, 2021, implementation date. Kansans can’t afford to wait any longer for health care access.

We won’t rebuild a strong Kansas economy if our people have their health compromised not only by the virus but also the consequences of not being able to get routine medicines and treatments because they were out of work with no health insurance.