WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) on Thursday said that the administration’s latest proposed drug rule for Medicare Part B could disrupt care and quality of life for Medicare patients, or “ration” care as Roberts predicted during the initial debate on the Affordable Care Act.

Speaking at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on mental health, Roberts said, “When this committee was debating the Affordable Care Act, I was concerned about several provisions that I believed would decrease individual choice and open the door to government rationing of health care. I’m sorry to say that with this latest proposal from CMMI, my fears are coming home to roost.”

For video of the Senator’s remarks at the here go here.

Last month, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) proposed changes to how the government pays for prescription drugs under Medicare Part B. The proposal would reduce reimbursements on new medications and could limit access to others that the administration does not deem “high value.” This could result in patients being switched to products that are less effective or have more side effects. Over 300 organizations are asking that this rule be withdrawn. In addition, all Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter to CMS this week requesting the agency withdraw this proposal.

In 2014, Roberts spoke on the Senate floor warning of the dangers of the government’s expanded authorities over healthcare as a result of Obamacare. He said, “Let me start with something called the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Yep, another fancy big government name. And the center has an enormous budget to match – aimed at finding innovative ways to reform payment and the delivery of health care.

“Sounds good, but, what this really means is that the ‘Innovation Center’ can now use taxpayer dollars to invest in ways to reduce patient access to care. Let me say that again: the government can now use taxpayer dollars to invest in ways to reduce patient access to care. It gives the government new powers to cut payments to Medicare beneficiaries with the goal to reduce program expenditures. However, the reality is they will reduce patients’ ability to access the care they want and need. All hidden under the cloak of ‘innovation.’”

In 2014, Senator Roberts introduced legislation in response to this called the Four Rationers Repeal Act, which would repeal CMMI, and three other rationing bodies.

“I’ve been talking about the four rationers for a long time and what it means to patients,” Roberts said. “What really scares me, as I watch all the other warnings and broken promises come true, is what is going to happen to Kansans back home when the warnings about the four rationers come true. Access to quality care will be a thing of the past for Americans.”

GREENWOOD COUNTY- Two people died in an accident just after 4p.m. on Friday in Greenwood County,

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Honda Accord driven by Jerry Don Sconce, 68, Bethany, OK., was eastbound on U.S. 400 three miles east of Fall River.

The Honda drifted left of center and hit a westbound 2006 GMC Sierra driven by Ronald Jason Edwards, 40, Elk City, head-on.

Sconce and Edwards were pronounced dead at the scene. They were not wearing seat belts, according to the KHP.

By ALEX SMITH

Congress voted in 2013 to require domestic abuse service providers who receive federal funds to offer help to people in same-sex relationships. But many advocates say LGBT people still have far fewer resources available to them than what’s traditionally been available for woman escaping violence from men.

To help fill that gap, the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project opened a center earlier this year in Westport to provide support for LGBT people living in the Great Plains region.

But the group’s executive director, Justin Shaw, tells KCUR’s Alex Smith that there’s still a lot of unwillingness – both inside and outside the community – to face up to the problem.

Are there a lot of misconceptions about violence within these communities?

People have for a long time looked at gay and lesbian and trans folks and bisexual folks in same-gender relationships as devious already. And so, well, of course two guys are going to get in a fight. Men are naturally violent. So of course two gay men are going to get in a fight. And it’s just a fight. It’s not violence. You know, domestic violence only happens to a woman from a man, from her husband. ’Cause that’s the story we’ve heard for so long and people only talking about domestic violence victims as being ‘her’ and things like that.

When it comes to sexual violence, again, we are looked at as a deviant – sexually deviant – community, so any sexual assault that could happen sometimes is looked at as – you wanted that, or violence is just naturally part of that. And I think that internalized homophobia within that affects a lot of people from reaching out and seeking services.

I wonder if there is resistance within the community from people who say they want to protect the image of people like them?

That is a huge thing. People often said, ‘Well people already look at us bad enough. Do want to report that as well? We just got marriage equality. Why do you want to go talk about the problems in your relationship to everybody?’ And I think there’s a lot of politics within the LGBTQ community about that, as far as there’s definitely groups of people that want to normalize the LGBTQ community or assimilate us into ‘we’re just the same as everybody else’ – which, in reality, nobody is the same as anybody else. And so to approach life from that kind of standpoint is really dangerous, because you’re not addressing specific needs of specific community members.

Are there particular issues or factors that more often lead to abuse in same-sex relationships?

I think it’s a lack of education about that it can happen to us, and I think that’s education to the community. I think that we try to get that information out there, but (if you) do an outreach at a bar on a Saturday night, people don’t want to talk about violence and abuse there. They’re there to escape the week of whatever has just faced them, whether that be discrimination or having to stay in the closet at their job. So just realization from the community that this violence happens first. And that there are people and services available for them.

Why reach out beyond Kansas City to provide services?

I think that Kansas City and St. Louis both have really vibrant LGBT communities, which is really exciting, and I think being in the middle of the map, so to speak, and then having these really kind of rural areas, (with) not a lot of big cities in the states around us – I think that we are a haven for people to go to come to. And so it’s important to be located and kind of based within there, but we do know that a lot of people don’t want to leave their homes if they consider themselves a country person or they are a farmer and they love farming. Why should they have to leave their home and escape to the city where they don’t know anybody? And it’s not always certain that they’ll find a community here. There’s people here, but as far as finding that feeling of community, that’s not always a guarantee.

What kind of help are you able to offer someone from, say, western Kansas?

Sure. We can start on the phone. This is something we do quite often, actually. We get calls from rural areas and kind of start on the phone. Try to assess safety needs. Part of the education and outreach we do across the states is not just to get more inclusive but it’s also to help our referral base, so we know of organizations that are actually competent, that aren’t just saying that they’re culturally competent, and so we can try to connect people with resources that are close to them. If there aren’t any, then our therapists can do phone therapy. If somebody really wants to come to Kansas City, we have funding to get transportation here. But like I said, that’s not everyone’s situation. So (we’re) trying to provide support to those folks however we can – and oftentimes that looks like regular checkups on the phone and that kind of support and being there.

Alex Smith is a reporter for the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach him on Twitter @AlexSmithKCUR

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 23-year-old Kansas woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless murder and other charges in the death of a 66-year-old woman in a September home invasion.

The Wichita Eagle  reports the state plans to ask a judge to sentence Brittany McDay to 21 years and 5 months for her role in killing Jacquelyn Harvey in Harvey’s home.

Prosecutors say McDay and 22-year-old Jacob Strouse went to the neighborhood to collect a debt but kicked in the door to the wrong house and shot Harvey before realizing their mistake.

Prosecutors dropped other counts against McDay in exchange for Friday’s guilty plea to the murder charge, aggravated burglary and attempted criminal use of a financial card.

Strouse is scheduled for trial in August on first-degree murder and other felony charges.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators have passed a bill creating new penalties for young people who transmit or possess nude images of children.

The votes Friday were 119-0 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate. Current law makes first-time sexual exploitation of a child under 18 a felony. The bill addresses a gray zone in the law in which adolescents are either tried as adults or receive no punishment.