By BRYAN THOMPSON

Harvard University, NPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered to survey Americans last year about their perceptions of health care.

Kansas was one of seven states — Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin were the others — singled out for a closer look. And the thing that stood out about Kansans was the degree of concern they expressed about the cost of health care.

As a retired nurse, Pat Hook knows all too well the potentially catastrophic consequences of not following her diabetic treatment plan to the letter.

“I got a good lecture from my doctor the last time I went,” said Hook, who was one of about a thousand Kansans who answered the telephone survey. “Told me that if I didn’t get on my insulin and stay on it, that my kidneys were gonna fail, I was gonna go blind — everything I already knew. But that doesn’t change anything.”

Hook, who lives in the tiny town of Mayfield, 40 miles southwest of Wichita, said she has no choice but to triage her own care. Even though she’s covered by Medicare, she can’t afford the insulin and other drugs she needs to control her diabetes.

“Last month I went to get my medicine, and it was $708, and I couldn’t get it,” Hook said. “That’s just my copay, because I’m in the doughnut hole. I couldn’t have afforded that if I was working.” The “doughnut hole”

Hook referred to is a gap in Medicare’s prescription drug coverage. Once a person’s drug costs reach a certain level, their coverage is reduced until their drug spending hits an upper threshold. The Affordable Care Act — also called Obamacare — includes provisions to close the “doughnut hole” over time, but in the meantime people like Hook struggle to balance their finances and their health. “

I stretch my insulin a lot. I may take one shot a day versus four,” she said “Pills, I skip ’em to once every three days.”

The scrimping isn’t limited to medication. Hook said she buys only the most basic groceries: milk, bread, cheese, potatoes. To save on gas, she and her husband limit their trips to Wellington, the county seat 10 miles away. They haven’t taken a trip or vacation since she retired five years ago.

And still, they’ve spent all of their savings. “Between taxes and health care, medication … yeah, it’s gone,” Hook said.

Harvard’s Robert Blendon, who led the polling effort, said Kansans were more likely than the national sample — and those in the other six states singled out in the poll — to report serious financial difficulties caused by health care costs.

“They think they’re going up,” he said. “They’re more concerned about the future. They’re worried about their insurance premiums. They’re more likely to say their own health care costs are unreasonable.”

So are health care costs really a bigger problem in Kansas than elsewhere? Paul Hughes-Cromwick, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at the nonprofit Altarum Institute, said a lack of timely state-level information makes valid comparisons difficult.

“The last time the government updated the state-level spending data was 2009, and they’re about to issue it again, but not until next year,” he said. Hughes-Cromwick said overall health care spending growth has seen a historic slowdown during the last few years.

He thinks what’s really hurting Kansans is that their incomes are growing at an even slower pace, and insurance changes are requiring consumers to shoulder more of the cost for health care.

“Health care costs have been rising faster than our incomes for about as long as I’ve been alive — and I’m not a young guy,” Hughes-Cromwick said. “Now we’re in an era where copays, deductibles, out-of-pocket cost sharing is increasing.”

Those out-of-pocket costs often are related to prescription drugs, according to Cynthia Cox, an associate director with the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.

“When we poll people and ask them what their top health care concerns or priorities are, prescription drug costs always have been coming to the top,” she said. From 2013 to 2014, the average out-of-pocket cost for hospital stays dropped, she said. “That’s in large part because of the Affordable Care Act expanding coverage to more people,” Cox said.

“But at the same time, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs actually increased from 2013 to 2014.”

And that’s an issue for aging Americans like Hook who have chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or stroke. Troy Ross, who heads the Overland Park-based Mid-America Coalition on Health Care, said the drugs needed to treat those conditions play a key role in escalating health care costs.

“Year in and year out, if you look at the drivers of health care costs, almost exclusively you’re going to see what is the ongoing progression of chronic disease across our state that is driving health care costs,” he said. “All too often that bubbles up and surfaces in the form of folks having to go to hospitals … going to more urgent care centers and ERs.”

Ross said that as employers continue to shift more health insurance costs to their workers, employees may try to save money by cutting back on their use of health care services.

“Folks will simply stop going to see their primary doctor for a preventive health visit,” he said, and that may lead to larger health costs down the line.

Ross wants to see the health care system shift from paying on the basis of the number and type of services delivered to the value of those services in maintaining a patient’s long-term health.

Helping people better manage their chronic diseases — or even prevent them altogether through healthier lifestyles — is the ultimate answer to rising health care costs, he said.

Bryan Thompson is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

SEDGWICK COUNTY- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 2 a.m. on Sunday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Honda Motorcycle driven by Brandon S. Sanger, 23, Goddard, was westbound on U.S. 54 just west of Oliver.

The vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and rear-ended a 2014 Dodge Charger.

Sanger was transported to Wesley Medical Center. The driver of the Dodge Middleton, Joseph M. Middleton, 28, Derby, was not injured.

Sanger was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.

ATLANTA (AP) — A government survey has found at least one violation in nearly 80 percent of public pool and hot tub inspections from 2013 in five states.

The Centers for Disease Control says it analyzed more than 84,000 inspections of nearly 49,000 public venues in five states with the most public pools. See the full report here.

The CDC says 1 in 8 inspections resulted in immediate closure because of serious health and safety violations. It says 1 in 5 kiddie pools were shut down.

The CDC says the most common violations involved improper pH levels, safety equipment and disinfectant concentration. The agency says nearly a third of local health departments don’t regulate or inspect public pools.

It says swimmers should be cautious before entering the water.

SHAWNEE COUNTY- One person was injured in an accident just after 8p.m. on Saturday in Shawnee County

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Ford Mustang driven by Jessica L. Alsbury, St. Joseph, MO., was westbound on U.S. 24 two miles east of St. Marys.

The vehicle left the roadway to the right and overturned in a residential driveway.

Alsbury was transported to Stormont Vail. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

 

 

12:45 p.m.

The Wichita, Kansas, Fire Department says two cadaver dogs are being brought in to help with the search for an 11-year-old boy who was swept away by rushing water.

The search resumed Saturday morning after rescuers were forced to abandon their efforts Friday night when water levels receded too much to use boats in a normally dry creek.

The boy fell into Gypsum Creek around 7:30 p.m. Friday as he was crossing a footbridge. Rescuers spent three hours looking for him before giving up for the night.

The department says on its Facebook page that crews are searching every inch of the creek in what is now a recovery effort.

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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) —Officials in Wichita on Saturday continued their search for an 11-year-old boy who fell into a rain-swollen creek and was swept away.

The Wichita Eagle reports  that Fire Battalion Chief John Turner said rescuers did a “very thorough” search for the 11-year-old after he and two friends were crossing Gypsum Creek on a footbridge and the boy fell in about 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Turner says Friday’s full search was called off at 10:30 p.m. because water levels had receded too much to use boats in the creek. Officials said they’d resume the search Saturday morning.

Turner says he hopes the boy could have gotten out of the creek on his own, but that crews are considering it a recovery operation.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old suburban Kansas City cab driver has been jailed on $500,000 bond after being accused of sexually attacking a female passenger.

The Kansas City Star reports that Abdul S. Sayed of Olathe, Kansas, requested a court-appointed lawyer during his first Johnson County court appearance Friday on charges of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday alleges that the victim was attacked Dec. 13, when she was “overcome by force or fear” or unable to give consent to sexual contact because of intoxication.

Court records show that in 2010, Sayed was charged in Johnson County with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery. He pleaded no contest and was found guilty of simple battery and was placed on probation.

BUTLER, Mo. (AP) — A western Missouri community is grieving after the death of a spunky 12-year-old who was killed in a freak rodeo accident during a charity event.

Kalee Chandler had just finished her barrel-racing run last Saturday when her horse appeared to have a heart attack. The horse slammed into the fence and rolled onto Kalee, pinning her.

The Kansas City Star reports the Butler girl died Monday and was buried Friday.  Read her obit here.

Neighbors in the Bates County town where Kalee’s parents and grandparents grew up struggled to find words to comfort the girl’s family, so they held fundraisers instead.

At a benefit auction Thursday, several winning bidders immediately put the items back up for sale, netting more than $25,000. Donations came in from as far away as Garden City, Kansas. See the GoFundMe page here.