Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran says he’s still bothered by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“I opposed the bill, strongly,” he said. “I think it creates many more problems than it solves, and I would love to replace it with something with a greater focus on reducing the underlying costs of health care.”

Shortly before a Monday news event during which U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts endorsed Moran’s run for the Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback, Moran told KHI News Service he supports having Medicare and Medicaid “... actually pay (providers) for the cost of the services they provide.”

Physicians, hospitals and nursing homes have long complained that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements fall short of covering their costs.

These losses, Moran said, drive up health care costs.

“It seems to me that before you would pass this gargantuan health care reform bill, you would look at what the problems are in today’s current system,” he said. “A portion of those problems, certainly, are a result of paying for health care services at a rate less than it costs to provide them.”

Moran, a Republican, said he has detected “a lot of angst” among the state’s health care providers who welcome the notion that under reform most Kansans will be insured but who fail to see how they can be expected to treat more Medicare and Medicare patients for comparable or less money.

“There is an uncertainty,” he said. “It’s an uncertainty that creates real concerns and challenges. People want answers.”

Moran declined to predict the outcome of several lawsuits challenging the requirement that most people have or buy health insurance.

“I can’t predict what a court will say or do, but I know that, from my perspective, there are constitutional issues about this health care bill that a court will ultimately decide,” he said.

Unseating the Democratic majority in Congress, Moran said, presents a “greater opportunity for what I would call improvements in the bill.”

Republicans in 21 states — not including Kansas — have filed legal challenges to the reform law.

Lisa Johnston, Moran’s Democratic opponent, said she thinks the lawsuits are flawed.

“I hear people say (health reform) is unconstitutional. I disagree,” Johnston said. “In the preamble to the Constitution, it clearly states that the purpose is to promote the general welfare of the people, and I certainly see health care as fitting squarely within the construct of general welfare.”

Johnston said she views health care “as a right not a privilege in this country.”

She questioned Moran’s call for Medicare and Medicaid covering providers’ costs.

“It’s important that providers be compensated for their services,” Johnston said. “But what I find interesting is how Jerry Moran and others like him keep saying, ‘We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.’ That, to me, is a case of talking out of both sides of your mouth.”

Johnston said health providers have told her the nation’s health care system is broken and, in general, they support reform efforts.

Johnston and Moran will face each other in the Nov. 2 general election.