Kansas City News Blog

Kansas City Rep. Jason Kander had an expectation of progress on health-care reform when he took his seat in the Missouri House of Representatives earlier this year. The freshman Democrat thought a landslide victory for Gov. Jay Nixon, who put health care at the forefront of his campaign, would translate into a mandate to provide coverage for more low-income Missourians.

"I was naively confident that the Republicans understood the mandate from the people of Missouri to restore some access to health care," he says.

Boy, was he wrong. This week, I wrote about the health-care battle in the House of Representatives. It wasn't pretty -- or productive.

"In the House budget debate, in order to get any children covered, I had to basically trick them," Kander says of the Republicans.

Here's what he did. 

In his recommended budget, Gov. Nixon included an additional $13.6 million in state money for SCHIP -- the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That money would have lowered and eliminated premium prices for families whose kids are eligible for the publicly subsidized health insurance. But the Republican budget chairman, Rep. Allen Icet, stripped out the extra funds. Democrats fought to get it back in, but House Republicans held the line.

So Kander came up with a ploy that would put opponents of the SCHIP funding in a very tight spot.

On March 25, during House debate on the budget, Kander offered an amendment that would take $81,000 from the line that funds legislators' own health insurance and shift it to SCHIP. He reasoned that the small boost in funding would cover the number of kids in the governor's proposal who, statistically speaking, would be expected to suffer from cancer.

Rep. Allen Icet

"Well, this is a most original idea," Icet said with a tight laugh when Kander distributed his amendment on the House floor. "I have not seen this in four years."

For a few moments the Republicans scrambled, conferring on how to maneuver out of an awkward position.

"We had a brief conversation about political posturing and this is definitely form over substance," Icet told Kander when he returned to the mic. "I understand the intent of this vote is to hang some members out to dry."

The Republicans didn't take the bait. Icet urged his colleagues to vote yes. The full House voted 158-0 in favor of Kander's amendment.

But he had another swing coming.

A few hours later, Kander offered another amendment to add $78,000 in funding SCHIP; this one to cover the statistical number of kids in the governor's proposed expansion who would be expected to suffer from autism. He proposed to take money from the lawmakers expense accounts, use the $15,000 that pays for House members' American-flag lapel pins and redirect the $12,000 the chamber spends on coffee.

Republican leaders huddled in the back again. When the clerk opened the board for the vote, Kander watched as the little boxes on his computer screen turn red, with the overwhelming majority of Republicans voting against his amendment. Then the tide turned. Republicans who could be vulnerable in upcoming elections switched to green. House leaders likely knew a vote keep their expense accounts and short change kids with autism won't play well in the next election.

Still, 36 members voted for their free lapel pins. Among the three dozen Republicans were two area lawmakers: Curt Dougherty of Independence and Doug Ervin of Kearney.

Two months later, though, when the dust settled on the entire convoluted budget process, only one of Kander's amendment's survived. The Senate appropriations committee stripped out the amendment for kids with autism but kept the provision for children with cancer.