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Prairie Village man starts online petition to restore in-home KanCare assistance

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Finn Bullers and his wife Anne, pictured in January.
Finn Bullers and his wife Anne, pictured in January.

On Nov. 1, Prairie Village resident and muscular dystrophy patient Finn Bullers was scheduled to have the state-provided in-home assistance he receives to help manage day-to-day activities like eating and using the restroom cut in half. (We covered his situation here and here previously).

But based on an appeal he’s filed with the state, Bullers is still receiving the 24/7 care he says he needs to get by. If he loses the appeal, though, the state will charge Bullers the cost of his care in excess of 40-hours-per-week starting Nov. 1.

This past week, Buller started an online petition imploring Gov. Sam Brownback to have the state reconsider its decision.

“Please reconsider drastic cuts to my home-based services that will reduce my care hours from full-time to 40 hours a week — a 76 percent reduction,” reads the petition. “My Muscular Dystrophy Association doctor, as well as my primary care physician — both have followed my case for more than a decade — say it is medically necessary I receive full-time care to survive.”

Additional excerpts from Bullers’ petition are below:

My managed-care organization, the for-profit United Healthcare, remains convinced that the drastic cut to my level of services is appropriate. But they — and the state — won’t say why. To draw an analogy, it is as if my medical professionals are saying it requires four apples for me to live and the state says it is willing to give me one apple –- to die…

My wife works up to 10 hours a day and is the family breadwinner and health-insurance provider. Kansas expects my wife to be my nurse 16 hours a day from the minute she gets home until the time she leaves for work, leaving no time for sleep and the children. Gov. Brownback was elected on a “family values” platform. Is this his definition of family values?

The petition quickly gained 100 signatures after going live. See the full petition here.

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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