Q and A with Laura Kelly, Kansas State Senator

Laura Kelly, elected to the Kansas Senate in 2004, is currently the assistant minority leader of that legislative body.  For the last eight years, she has served as ranking minority member on the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home Community Based Services and KanCare, the Kansas version of Medicaid.  This is also her 10^th year as ranking minority member on the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Prior to her election, Senator Kelly worked in the mental health field in New York and Denver, and served as executive director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association.  “My experience in the health care field clearly influences the way I approach issues,” she says.  A Democrat, Senator Kelly, participated at the Reforming States Group (RSG) meetings at the invitation of the former Republican Kansas Commissioner of Insurance Sandy Praeger, attending her first meeting in 2011.  The Fund recently spoke with Senator Kelly about how the RSG has aided her work in the Kansas Legislature.

What is your involvement with health in the Kansas Senate?

Kansas privatized Medicaid in 2013, making membership on the oversight committee a major responsibility.  Our job is to ensure that all MCOs [managed care organizations] are providing the services they have been contracted to provide.  In addition, I’m a proponent of the population health approach.  My focus is on early childhood education and social services.  In 2006, I sponsored the establishment of early childhood development block grants.  In the past, I was able to garner bipartisan support for improving the mental health care system in the state of Kansas. That support has waned as Kansas drastically reduced income taxes, devastating agency budgets.  Hopefully, our new legislature will fix the problem and we will be able to re-invest in our health programs.

How has the RSG affected your work?

RSG research expands my knowledge of specific issues as they are brought into the committee setting.  The Fund’s 1991 “Hard Choices, Hard Times” publication has been valuable.  It presents ideas for states to consider as they make policy and appropriation decisions when they don’t have any money.  It is especially appropriate because Kansas is in a self-inflicted recession right now. The RSG has helped confirm my belief in evidence-based policy.  When prioritizing appropriations, I want to know that we are directing scarce resources to programs and services known to make a difference.

What have you learned from other state leaders?

Several years ago, the RSG convened a State Technical Assistance meeting to discuss innovative Medicaid expansion programs, such as those in Arkansas and Indiana. Leaders from those states met with those of us in expansion-resistant states, sharing legislative strategies that were successful.  While Kansas has still not expanded Medicaid, we will have our first debate on the issue in the 2017 session.

We understand that you like the bipartisan setting of the RSG meetings. Can you elaborate?

Networking is a very important piece of RSG meetings.  The meetings are designed to engage members of both the executive and the legislative branches at the same time. People who normally don’t interact on a routine basis have a chance to share ideas.  In a bipartisan setting, we sit around the same table and participate in the same discussion.  That common experience greatly facilitates discussion and debate back home.