An open letter to Governor Brownback and the Kansas State Legislature

I had abandoned this blog as having my children had rendered my heart considerably lightened. But as I lay awake wondering what the future holds for my family, I can't help but think these guys are real dillholes.

Dear Governor Brownback and the Kansas State Legislature:

My family's story begins at Pittsburg State University where my husband and I met and fell in love. After graduation, we moved to Olathe to start our big awesome careers and big awesome lives but it was 2008 and well, the economy was in the crapper. My husband, being a smart man, went on to achieve an advanced degree in hopes it would improve our chances. We bought a modest home in a smallish suburb, we married and grew our family by two more, Charlie and our darling Scarlet. With my husband and I and my daughter Taylor, we make five. We attend church. Our cars are almost 9 years old and we don't have cable. We recycle and we eat most of our family meals at home, around our table. I'm telling you all of this because I thinks it's important to know what kind of people we are. We are average Americans and Kansans and we are on the verge of financial ruin. Our very own fiscal cliff, if you will.

You see, almost three months ago now, our sweet Scarlet was born. We knew from prenatal tests that she would be born with Down Syndrome and another condition needing immediate surgery. She came almost five weeks early and was immediately transported to Children's Mercy. Scarlet had surgery the next day and spent the next seven weeks in the Intensive Care Nursery. Luckily, I had insurance through my job. Unluckily, it was a high deductible plan because some right-winged radio show host convinced my employer that if he didn't shop for cheaper insurance now, the rates would be astronomical down the road. Worse yet, Scarlet also has a heart defect that will require surgery. This defect makes her more vulnerable than most babies. An illness would almost surely mean another hospitalization. So I made the difficult decision to leave my job. I couldn't have afforded the child care anyway. The only problem is we can't afford COBRA and my husband had only recently started his new job. After five months of unemployment, he got a job. My husband has a MBA and he installs television and internet service, but that is a whole other tragic story. We aren't eligible for benefits through his new employer until February. So all five of us are now part of the 48 million Americans without healthcare coverage. 48 million and five. 

I applied for coverage through the State of Kansas and was denied. I applied for supplemental coverage before, when I was pregnant and my husband was unemployed and we first knew all of this was coming, and was denied. We applied for mortgage modification and were denied. We applied for WIC and were denied. When the hospital social worker first spoke with us about applying for disability for Scarlet, who medically qualifies, I took one look at the financial qualifications and said "Why bother? We'll only be denied." In some cases, we miss the financial qualifications by $20 a month. So here we stand, on the edge of our fiscal cliff, below us is the safety net of public assistance, and in order to save ourselves, we must now swan dive into it. But what if our cliff was at the edge of a canyon and all we really needed was a bridge to get to the other side? A finite amount of help for a finite period of time. And what if you could build that bridge for us and the Federal government was going to give you money to build it, effectively making our swan dive totally unnecessary all while not costing you a penny? Well, we don't really have to ask "What if?" We already know the answer. You'd say "No." You already did. Under the Affordable Healthcare Act, Kansas would have received money to expand Medicaid coverage in order to cover the working poor and you said "No thanks."

Did I mention that I am a Republican? I voted for Obama this last time though. I don't ordinarily come right out with that but I think it's important that you know. I voted for AHA, I wanted AHA and we needed AHA. I know it probably isn't the perfect solution to this country's health care crisis but there are families, Kansas families, who cannot afford to wait until it is.

Sincerely

Kirstin Johnson