Kansas Hospitals Pressing Ahead with Medicaid Expansion Proposal

While the election returned Gov. Sam Brownback to office and solidified conservatives’ control of the Legislature, Kansas hospitals are moving ahead with plans to put a Medicaid expansion plan before lawmakers. Democrat Paul Davis favored expansion but came up short in his bid to upset Brownback, a Republican who thus far has opposed expansion. Also, several Democratic House members who likely would have favored expansion lost narrowly to GOP challengers. Similar results across the country prompted national observers to declare expansion unlikely in Kansas and four other states where candidates who opposed expansion won close governor’s races. “No one would say it was a good night for the prospects of Medicaid expansion,” Joan Alker, director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, told Kaiser Health News.

Source/more: Kansas Health Institute

David Wingate

Elder Law Attorney serving Frederick and Montgomery County, Maryland