Thirty-two states have now expanded Medicaid, allowing citizens struggling to make ends meet to get extra help with the cost of health care. Seventeen of those states had Republican-controlled legislatures, seventeen have Republican governors. Governments in those states have realized that Medicaid expansion is not a partisan issue.
It just makes sense for states like Kansas.
Expanding Medicaid in Kansas would mean offering benefits for an additional 150,000 low-income Kansans who make too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but not enough to be eligible for financial assistance to buy private health insurance. Expansion offers benefits to those at less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, $26,347 for a family of three.
Opponents complain that some of these Kansans are able-bodied and choosing not to work, but those with no income already qualify for support.
ITS THE WORKING poor who too often fall between the cracks. Hearing the stories of those impacted by lack of Medicaid coverage points to the complexity of their situations. They are students, people working very low-wage jobs, people unable to find affordable child care and people with physical or mental illness that fall just short of the standards to qualify for disability.
With 90 percent of the costs covered by the federal government, an expenditure that has now held in the face of opposition, expansion would allow an influx of much-needed resources into Kansas hospitals and long-term care facilities.
The Kansas legislature did the right thing last year by passing Medicaid expansion, which was vetoed by then governor Sam Brownback. If our elected leaders are unwilling or unable to expand Medicaid, Kansas should consider taking the campaign directly to the ballot box.
Supporters are gathering signatures in Nebraska, Idaho, Missouri and Utah to put Medicaid expansion on ballots in November. Their campaigns are taking inspiration from Maine, where 59 percent of voters approved expansion last year, siding with their Republican-controlled legislature and rejecting the arguments of a governor who had dug in his heels in opposition.
Kansans have repeatedly shown support for expansion in large margins. Multiple polls have shown more than 75 percent of Kansas voters support expanding KanCare. A recent American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network poll showed a 66 percent of Kansas Republicans in support.
Our failure to expand Kan-care has left billions of our tax dollars in the hands of the federal government, but we have an opportunity to change course.
Its time to bring that money home to Kansas.
The Topeka Capital-Journal
With 90 percent of the costs covered by the federal government, an expenditure that has now held in the face of opposition, expansion would allow an influx of much-needed resources into Kansas hospitals and long-term facilities.
