Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Law enforcement officials in Reno County are investigating a number of suspicions fires.

Hutchinson Deputy Fire Chief Doug Hanen said two additional fires on Friday morning led to the arrest of a 16-year old.

Officials said just before 11:30 a.m. firefighters responded to 11th and Wilson for a hay bale on fire.

A moment later, fire crews were dispatched to a second fire at 9th and Carrousel.

When they arrived, they found a two-acre patch of grass burning on the east side of the dike and a hay bale on fire in the field to the north.

The fires were contained quickly and units remained on scene for about a half an hour ensuring all hot spots were out.

The Reno County Sheriff’s Office has not released a name of the suspect.

Sheriff Randy Henderson said the fires on Friday are not related to fires in the southern part of county.

KANSAS CITY -Five people were injured in an accident just before 11 p.m. on Friday in Wyandotte County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Mitsubishi Galant driven by Stephanie Renee Njie, 47, Kansas City, was on the ramp from Parallel Parkway to Interstate 435 southbound.

The driver took her eyes off the road, drove off the ramp and into the middle of Interstate 435.

A 2008 Honda Odyssey driven by Gretchen D. Kramp, 33, Overland Park, collided with the Mitsubishi.

Njie was transported to Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

Kramp and 3 children in the Honda were transported to KU Medical Center. The KHP reported all were properly restrained at the time of the accident.

By Bryan Thompson

Until the federal health insurance marketplace opened in late 2013, farmers and ranchers were more likely to be uninsured than many other occupational groups. The Affordable Care Act changed that by requiring them — and most other U.S. citizens — to buy insurance. But it also gave them coverage options they didn’t have before.

Jon Bailey, of the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs, said it’s hard to make sweeping generalizations about how the health care law is working for farmers and ranchers.

“Depending where you live, what your individual circumstances are, how healthy you are, how old you are, it’s gonna make a lot of difference in what you pay for health insurance or what you have available,” he said. But, he added, there’s little doubt the Affordable Care Act has given farmers and ranchers — and rural residents in general — more health insurance options than they had before.

Traditionally, there’s been less competition for their business, especially in the individual market. And because farmers and ranchers tend to be self-employed or work for small operations, that’s the market they rely on. “Sixty to 70 percent of farmers still purchase on the individual market,” Bailey said.

“So how we can make the individual market affordable to them, and providing more options, is important because they’re so dependent on the individual market, more than the population in general.”

He said because farmers tend to be older — in their mid-to-upper 50s, on average — and because the nature of their work is more dangerous, they are more likely to have health issues and be more expensive to insure.

 

No longer ‘uninsurable’

Studies done before the ACA’s enactment found that farmers were among the occupational groups least likely to have health insurance. Donn Teske is a good example. Not that long ago, some health conditions he considers relatively minor made it virtually impossible for him to get insurance.

In addition to high blood pressure, he has a heart condition diagnosed years ago that can be controlled with medication.

“But when that shows up on your history, then you’re uninsurable,” said Teske, who has a cow-calf operation near Wheaton in the Flint Hills northeast of Manhattan and serves as president of the Kansas Farmers Union.

The only way he was able to get coverage before passage of the health reform law was through his wife’s policy. Even then, adding him to the policy was expensive, and he said the coverage left a lot to be desired.

So Teske’s wife changed jobs to get a better deal on insurance, even though it meant driving 40 miles instead of eight. The ACA, Teske said, changed that.

“By God, for the first time in decades I’ve been able to buy my own health insurance, and I’m pretty proud of that,” he said. “And I’m buying it from the same company that turned me down before. And so I’m very supportive of the Affordable Care Act.”

Variable income a factor

Others in farm and ranch country are less enthusiastic about the health care law. Kyle Baker, 28, manages a large ranch for a landowner near Rosalia, in the Flint Hills east of El Dorado. He also has his own smaller herd of cattle.

“I go to the doctor maybe once a year or once every two or three years, and I just kind of want something there in case something, you know, catastrophic happens,” said Baker, who said he is in good overall health. Eighty percent of Kansans who bought policies for 2015 through the federal marketplace qualified for subsidies.

But subsidies are based on income, and Baker said it’s hard to predict what his income will be because it depends on two factors beyond his control: weather and market prices.

“When I kind of filled out what I thought might be a decent year, I got an email that said ‘Congratulations! You’re qualified for a tax credit equal to zero or less dollars.’ And then the policies that they had on there were more expensive than the policies — and not as good — as the ones that I had,” he said. So Baker opted to stay with the coverage he already had.

 

The greater good’

Farm Bureau Insurance agent Vernon Hurd said many farmers have done the same. Hurd’s agency is in the northwest Kansas town of St. Francis, and he does a lot of business with farmers. As a general rule, he said, they don’t like being told what to do.

“Yeah, they’re probably not excited about being told that they have to have health insurance,” Hurd said. “But by and large, I think they see the greater good in knowing that their neighbors, their friends and their family that weren’t able to get coverage in the past now can.”

He thinks that’s why he’s hearing fewer complaints about the health care law from his customers. “Even some of the folks I’ve worked with that were the staunchest conservatives — probably haven’t voted for a Democrat in their lives — recognize the fact that there were so many people that weren’t able to obtain health insurance,” Hurd said.

“And when you take that into consideration, I think most of my clients would tell you, overwhelmingly actually, that they think it’s a good thing that we’re finally able to give that opportunity to people that didn’t have it in the past.” Hurd said some of his clients now have health insurance for the first time in 40 years. He calls that the “true blessing” of the Affordable Care Act.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

MAYETTA- A Kansas man was injured in an accident during a pursuit by law enforcement on just after 6 p.m. on Friday in Jackson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1985 Dodge truck driven by Robert J. Eisermann, 49, Denison, was northbound on V Road four miles west of Mayetta. The truck was traveling at a high rate of speed attempting to elude officers with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

The truck entered a right hand curve and left the roadway to the west. The driver was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the truck.

Eisermann was transported to Stormont Vail for treatment.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New federal figures show that Kansas ranked 28th in February among states and the District of Columbia in its percentage of private-sector job growth over the previous year.

Seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Kansas had 21,000 more residents employed in private-sector, nonfarm jobs in February than in February 2014. That’s an increase of nearly 1.9 percent, to 1.15 million.

Utah had the nation’s best growth rate of more than 4.8 percent.

Three neighboring states outperformed Kansas. Colorado experienced growth of 3.7 percent; Texas had 3.6 percent, and Arkansas saw 3 percent.

But Kansas did better than Missouri and Oklahoma, which both saw growth of about 1.7 percent.

Kansas also outperformed Iowa’s 1.4 percent and Nebraska’s 1.1 percent.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri white supremacist has pleaded not guilty to charges that he gunned down three people last year at Jewish sites in the Kansas City area.

Seventy-four-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller entered the pleas Friday during a court appearance in Johnson County, Kansas.

He was ordered earlier this month to stand trial on charges of capital murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count each of aggravated assault and criminal discharge of a weapon at a structure.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty if Miller is convicted.

Miller has said he felt a duty to kill Jews before his death, which he believed to be imminent because he suffers from emphysema.

A judge Friday denied Miller’s request for Internet access while he’s jailed awaiting trial.