LAWRENCE — Shelley Miles lives on a quaint, tree-lined street in Lawrence. She used to share her split-level home with her husband, Kirk. But then he was diagnosed with dementia. Miles said in 2021, Kirk’s memory issues progressed quickly.
“He was much more agitated, kind of confrontational. He was hallucinating,” she said.
Kirk started wandering away from the house late at night. She felt like she had to watch him day and night to keep him safe.
“We have six exits out of this house, so it was really difficult to keep an eye on him 24/7,” Miles said. “My kids were coming over from Kansas City and sleeping on the couch to help me because I was exhausted.”
Miles said Kirk’s doctors told her he needed to move to assisted living. It took time — Miles said it was difficult to find a facility that had space for her husband and could handle his memory issues. But eventually, she moved him to a facility about 25 minutes away from Lawrence in Baldwin City, Kansas.
It took about a year to enroll her husband in Medicaid. She said she spent more than $70,000 before they were able to qualify — completely draining their savings and money they’d earned off the sale of Kirk’s family’s farm. Currently, with the help of Medicaid, Miles pays the facility about $1,595 per month.
But now, proposed federal cuts to Medicaid have Miles concerned. She’s afraid Kirk will lose coverage, raise her monthly costs or the cuts will cause the facility he lives in to close.
“I’m stressed every day that they’re going to make cuts to Medicaid and that extra help won’t be there,” she said. “I definitely will not be able to afford it and keep this home.”
Federal lawmakers are considering billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” aimed at lowering spending and taxes. The proposed changes have divided Republicans.
What politicians say
Congressional lawmakers currently want to cut an estimated $715 billion over the next decade from Medicaid. The program covers more than 440,000 Kansans who are older adults, have disabilities, are pregnant or are children.
Proponents of the cuts, like Republican Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson, say they’re going after waste and fraud in the Medicaid system.
“The Democrats, as I noted this morning, have said that we are going to gut Medicaid. It is not true. We’re going to protect the benefits that everyone is legally entitled to,” Johnson told reporters last month.
But Republicans aren’t all on the same page. Area politicians, like Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran and Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley have spoken against steep cuts to Medicaid.
Moran said the reduction in funds would harm health care systems in Kansas.
“It’s broader than just hospitals. It’s the hospital. It’s the nursing home. It’s the community pharmacist. It’s the physician. It’s the nurse practitioner. It’s the chiropractor. It’s the optometrist,” Moran said during a speech on the Senate floor.
