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Farm Bureau Wants to Offer Health Insurance Plans to Farmers - So Why is this Controversial?

 Tim Franklin farms in Goodland, in northwest Kansas, but drove to Topeka earlier this year for a hearing on the Kansas Farm Bureau's insurance plans. (Photo by Jim McLean / Kansas News Service)
Tim Franklin farms in Goodland, in northwest Kansas, but drove to Topeka earlier this year for a hearing on the Kansas Farm Bureau's insurance plans. (Photo by Jim McLean / Kansas News Service)

When farmers were asked in a recent national survey to identify the biggest threat to their livelihoods, they didn’t say low commodity prices or global trade policies. It was rising health insurance costs.  That has prompted Farm Bureau chapters in the Midwest to jump into the marketplace with lower-cost coverage options.  But as Jim McLean (Mc-LEEN) reports for Harvest Public Media, the plans have consumer advocates and traditional insurers crying foul.


Read more about this story.

Jim McLean is a reporter for the Kansas News Service and a contributor to Harvest Public Media and Kansas Public Radio.
 

Jim McLean, Executive Editor of KHI News Service, oversees the KHI News Service. From 2005 until 2013, McLean coordinated all communications activities at KHI as Vice President for Public Affairs. The position he now occupies was created as part of a strategic initiative to solidify the editorial and operational independence of the KHI News Service. Prior to coming to KHI, McLean had a distinguished career as a journalist, serving as the news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and a managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal. During his more than 20 years in Kansas journalism, McLean won numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 1997, McLean and two Capital-Journal colleagues received the Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise Award from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism for a series of stories on the state’s business climate. McLean holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University.