KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Efforts to bring a debate regarding possible Medicaid expansion in Kansas failed Wednesday in the state Senate, effectively killing the bill for 2019.
But Medicaid expansion advocates said there is optimism that it will pass next year.
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, strongly supports Medicaid expansion, which passed the Republican-majority Kansas House of Representatives.
The Senate took the unique approach Wednesday, forgoing the committee process and bringing Medicaid expansion up for debate immediately on the floor.
A yea vote by 24 senators was needed to carry the motion, which only received 23 votes after a Republican senator changed his vote and effectively ended the debate before it started.
Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Johnson County Republican, did not vote and instead “passed."
“It is not prudent for the Senate to support Medicaid expansion spending plan until we know how the Supreme Court rules on our K-12 finance bill,” Denning said.
State Sen. Barbara Bollier, a Johnson County Democrat, voted for the motion.
“To be denied that opportunity through maneuver after maneuver is abhorrent to me and should be to the entire state for us to not be able to debate this bill,” Bollier said.
Kenny Wilk, a former Kansas lawmaker and current vice president for government and community affairs with the University of Kansas Health System, said most people who are eligible for Medicaid expansion have jobs. He said some legislators oppose the funding mechanism for Medicaid expansion.
“There are folks that are just against more government spending,” Wilk said. “There is clearly more government spending with this. It is mostly federal dollars. We are paying those taxes; Kansans are paying those dollars now.”
Wilk said the decision not to expand Medicaid ultimately will cost the state.
“This is huge" he said. "It costs us, the state and health care about $1 billion a year to not be a part of Medicaid expansion."
More than 150,000 people in Kansas don’t have health insurance.
Dr. Steven Stites with the University of Kansas Medical Center said he knows a college student who lost her health insurance when her mother died.
“She doesn’t have health insurance," said Stites, who supports Medicaid expansion. "She has health challenges that need to be taken care of, but with the lack of Medicaid expansion she doesn’t get health care. She has to quit going to college, so that she can get a job, so that she can get health care, so that she can take care of herself. Who won and who lost in that story?”
