Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says bills to expand Medicaid have been introduced in the House and the Senate.

In a press release, the governor said, “The Healthcare Access for Working Kansans (HAWK) Act protects our rural hospitals, bolsters our health care workforce, and strengthens our economy — all while coming at no cost to Kansans. In fact, by waiting to expand Medicaid, we have wasted over $280 million and left $7.6 billion on the table in Washington D.C.”   The bill would provide Medicaid coverage to an additional 150,000 Kansas residents. 

The bill was introduced in the House Appropriations Committee by Representative Barbara Ballard and in the Senate Ways and Means Committee by Senator Pat Pettey.

Republican leaders in the legislature have been resistant to Medicaid expansion in past sessions, and the proposals are unlikely to get much traction.    Senate President Ty Masterson of Andover has said that expansion would end up “removing able-bodied adults from private insurance and putting them on the government dole, undoing the progress we’ve made and harming the most vulnerable people for whom the Medicaid safety net was intended.”