What we’re watching: July 2025 local and federal policy update

At Health Forward Foundation, we’re committed to providing timely updates on key local and federal policy developments that impact the health and well-being of our communities. This resource is designed to help our advocacy partners in and around Kansas City stay connected to the issues, opportunities, and decisions shaping our region — so we can continue working together toward a more just and equitable health outcomes.

Much has occurred in local and federal policy making since our last update in early June. 

In our Kansas service area

Allen County

• The County Commission considered a $167,038 funding request by the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center requesting county funding to provide services to people who lack insurance and do not qualify for Medicaid. The Commission is set to further consider this request as part of their 2026 budgeting process. Requests such as these on the local level across our service area will likely become more frequent and of larger amounts, given changes to Medicaid and resulting in increasing numbers of uninsured.
• A member of the Iola City Council has proposed that the city should discontinue voting wards for future city elections and instead, all candidates for office would be chosen at-large. These changes have the potential to dilute the voting power of already underrepresented populations in a community and often lose sight of the differing needs and lived experiences in different communities within a municipality, resulting in policies that do not reflect differing concerns in certain neighborhoods or communities. City-wide majorities would effectively be able to elect all representatives, leaving other groups unrepresented.

Wyandotte County

• Budget talks are also underway with the County Commission working toward approving the budget on Aug. 28. There have been several “Dotte Talk Community Conversations” about the budget for residents to voice their needs and recommendations for how budget dollars are spent to inform the County Administrators proposed budget he will ultimately submit to the County Commission. The last of these community input sessions is scheduled for Aug. 7 from 5 – 7 pm. A public hearing on the budget is set for Aug. 26 from 5 – 7 pm, by which time the budget will essentially be set. The hearing will provide an opportunity for residents to learn what will be in the budget.
• The Wyandotte County Board of Health recently held an update on its five-year Community Health Improvement Plan. Highlights include employment, income and affordable housing, which are the biggest barriers to health in the county.  Community violence is the biggest health concern, with mental health and substance misuse service provision and availability being closely related to the prevalence of violence in the county. These are common challenges in urban areas, lending to the health disparities we often see in these communities and informing Health Forward’s strategies in People and in Place.
• At the end of June, the County Commission was presented with an update on housing trends during which the case was made for pre-approved building plans to streamline the process and the allowance of modular and pre-fab homes as options to reduce construction costs and lead to the availability of more quality and affordable housing in the county.

Johnson County

• The Board of County Commissioners voted to approve new district boundaries at its July 24 meeting. Redistricting meetings were held in early July for each of the county’s six county commission districts. Redistricting is necessary due to population shifts shown in the last census data. Many factors come into play when redistricting – so that district lines are drawn in ways that ensure fair and equal representation in the districts, and in consideration of maintaining population balance, logical configurations, maintenance of voting district, and keeping existing cities intact. Generally speaking, redistricting processes can raise concerns about preventing racial discrimination and partisan gerrymandering. At the meetings, public input was sought on where the new lines should be drawn and the proposed maps to help ensure the lines are drawn with community interests and makeup in mind. A recording of the virtual public engagement session can be found on the county’s website, as can the maps.
• Johnson County Department of Health and Environment also released its 2023-2024 Community Health Assessment earlier this year, which is available on the county website. Three in ten residents report that they worry about their finances – a factor that affects housing, food security, and health. Given the assessment, Johnson County’s 2025-2029 community health improvement plan will focus on 4 key priorities – affordable housing, jobs with livable wages, affordable mental health treatment, and access to health insurance coverage.

In our Missouri service area

KCMO/Jackson County

• In Jackson County, Missouri, the County Assessor has launched a Public Property Access Portal to improve public access to property information for residential and commercial properties across the country. The aim is to make assessment information more accessible. County Commissioners also passed an ordinance recently, Ordinance 5987, reclassifying short term rentals previously classified as commercial property as residential for assessment purposes.
• The City of Kansas City, Missouri, recently held an application process for Round 5 Affordable Housing Trust Fund dollars. The Affordable Housing Trust fund is a city wide fund to promote, preserve and create long term affordable housing for households earning extremely low, very low, and moderately low  incomes. Affordable housing remains out of reach for many in the region due to increased housing costs and a shortage of affordable housing supply. The application period for available dollars closed June 20.
• The City Council also passed Ordinance Number 250491 in June, removing government assistance payments such as Housing Choice Vouchers as sources of income for housing purposes. Also in June, the city council unanimously passed Resolution 250413, paving the way for a $500 million investment over ten years toward the implementation of the Prospect Corridor transit oriented development strategic plan and establishing a corridor manager to steward the development process. The plan centers community and equity in its implementation. Health Forward is excited about this development, as the Prospect Corridor will be the location of our new office building that is currently under construction.

Cass County

• The delinquent tax sale auction will take place Aug. 25 at 10 am at the Harrisonville County Court House. Individuals interested in purchasing a property in the sale can register to participate between July 14 and Aug. 22.

On the Federal level

All attention has been on what proponents have been calling the Big Beautiful Bill that in fact and in practice will be harmful and ugly to the communities we serve. While some changes were made to the bill since our last update to add a temporary $50 million rural hospital fund and no cuts to the federal Medicaid match were made – thanks to the efforts of our partners and advocates across the Nation –

Other changes to Medicaid and Marketplace insurance remain, Medicaid work requirements remain, rural hospitals are still likely to close as the fund is insufficient to support struggling rural hospitals across the nation, and state governments will now be responsible for covering the expenses for the SNAP food assistance program. 

As a result, tens to hundreds of thousands of Kansans and Missourians who qualify for Medicaid and SNAP are faced with losing these benefits either due to already constrained state budgets’ inability to fund them or the administrative error that has been the common result when new and heightened administrative burdens are put into place.

Our focus and the focus of many other think tanks, as well as social service organizations in our region and elsewhere will be to better understand the impacts of the bill to inform policy and procedural changes at the state and local level and the practices and service offerings of health care providers and social service providers facing new and heightened budget shortfalls.