OK, we’ve heard lots of talk about the Interstate Health Care Compact bill that Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law last week with no formal ceremony where he could write his name while surrounded by fans of the measure.
He might have signed it in his car—it’s not texting, after all—or maybe on his way out the door to lunch, but he signed it and now we get to see whether it was worth the ink.
Key is that several other states have enacted laws to join that compact, which is supposed to cajole Congress into essentially giving up its authority over Medicare and Medicaid (we call it KanCare in Kansas now) and just send the states a check each year for what the federal government would have spent in Kansans for health care that is federally funded. That’s Medicare and Medicaid, but not anything that is related to the Veterans Administration or the Department of Defense or Native Americans.