31 January 2024
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Latino Legislative Advocacy Day brought representatives from various organizations across the state to the Capitol today.
The group was focused primarily on two causes: improving financial benefits for workers’ compensation and supporting Governor Laura Kelly’s push for Medicaid expansion.
Monica Vargas-Huertas, the chair commissioner for the Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission (KHLAAC), says there are several problems with current legislation, with the main issue being the monetary limit on disability benefits.
“We need to increase the caps for permanent disability,” she said. “Once the injured worker who has been declared permanently disabled reaches that cap, they don’t have access to any other economic benefit.”
The current monetary cap for someone on permanent disability is $155,000, according to Vargas-Huertas.
Although the group’s main goal is to bolster government support of the Latino community, they are concerned for the welfare of all working-class Kansans.
“They work in manufacturing, they work in construction, they work in meat packing plants,” Vargas-Huertas said. And those are some of the toughest jobs that many people suffer from injuries in the workplace.”
“This is not a Hispanic issue,” she said. “This is something that is affecting Kansans all over the state.”
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