Opinion: KanCare bully beats up disabled

For-profit, managed-care smackdown puts Rocky on the ropes

By FINN M. BULLERS
Freelance writer/editor

Remember the final minutes of Rocky II?

It’s post Bicentennial America. And the country still is in search of patriotic themes and underdog dreams. Actors Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers deliver in the second of six feel-good boxing thrillers that altogether grossed more than $1 billion.

In the end, both Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed pummel each other in 15 rounds of bone-crushing, sweat-flying body blows until both fall to the mat in utter exhaustion.

Flash forward: It’s 2014 Topeka, Kansas, home of the KanCare political boxing championship. Two equally matched contenders have squared off in the first of what appears to be a long-running series of equally bloody bouts.

In one corner wearing patriotic satin trunks is underdog disability civil rights advocate Rocky Nichols with the Big Tent Coalition, an alliance of dozens of advocacy groups and home- and community-based service providers.