TOPEKA — Representatives of Thrive Allen County and Thrive Kansas were at the state Capitol Wednesday for the Kansas Legislature’s first hearings on Medicaid expansion in four years.
Jenny Tatman, assistant director of Thrive Kansas, said it was important to support efforts by Gov. Laura Kelly and some lawmakers to expand Medicaid.
“Through our Navigator program, we help people enroll in health insurance programs and support services, so we know Medicaid expansion would help more people in Kansas,” Tatman said. “I’ve told our legislators that at Thrive, we use whatever tools we can to help people get healthcare coverage and see doctors. The more tools we have, the better.”
At the Senate’s hearing Wednesday morning, lawmakers, health care advocates and lobbyists lined the walls of a jam-packed room to give their views on Medicaid expansion.
It’s been four years since legislative leaders have allowed hearings on expanding state health care coverage for Kansans who can’t afford to buy traditional health insurance.
The joint Senate committee informational hearing on what this extended eligibility would look like is one of two Medicaid expansion hearings scheduled Wednesday.
Tatman learned more than 400 people and organizations, including Thrive, submitted written testimony in support of expansion.
She was particularly interested in testimony from those who lack health care coverage, such as one woman who shared her personal story. That woman did not have health insurance during college and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. If she’d had the ability to be diagnosed earlier, she likely would have had better opportunities for care.
“At Thrive, those are the people who come to see us,” Tatman said in between the two hearings.
“There is definitely an energy here today, with people wearing buttons to support expansion. A lot came from rural comcommunities, from hospitals and from coalitions that are very supportive of Medicaid expansion. It’s a very exciting day to be at the Capitol.”
Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Eudora Republican, said the current state health insurance plan should not be changed.
“For multiple reasons, I urge my fellow legislators to vote against Medicaid expansion,” Gossage wrote in submitted testimony. “Kansas is wise to preserve limited Medicaid funds for the truly vulnerable for whom Medicaid was originally designed. And not to displace people from their private plans onto a government program that will stretch the state budget and withhold funds from other vital projects.”
Kansas is one of 10 states left that have not expanded, as Republican leadership in the Legislature — where the party holds a supermajority in both chambers — has withheld approval despite widespread public support for expansion.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government covers 90% of the extra cost of Medicaid services in exchange for expanding eligibility to 138% of the federal poverty rate. Medicaid expansion would unlock $700 million in annual federal funding and could potentially save 59 rural hospitals on the brink of closure.
Among the conservative national lobbying groups that voiced opposition to expansion were Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute and Opportunity Solutions Project.
Dean Clancy, senior health policy fellow with Americans for Prosperity, said expansion would take away funds from “truly needy patients.”
