Kansas Republicans Just Defied Donald Trump and Voted to Expand Medicaid

[babylonsister]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/kansas-state-senate-medicaid


Kansas Republicans Just Defied Donald Trump and Voted to Expand Medicaid
As the GOP tries to blow up Obamacare in DC, Republicans in this deep-red state are rushing to implement it.

Patrick Caldwell
Mar. 24, 2017 1:34 PM


On the same day the House was supposed to pass a bill dismantling Medicaid, Kansas Republicans took a big step toward expanding the program in their state.

In a voice vote Thursday morning, a committee in the Kansas Senate approved legislation that would enable the state to take advantage of an Obamacare provision offering Medicaid health insurance coverage to a wider group of poor people. The federal government would provide the vast majority of the funding.

Many deep-red states like Kansas have rejected Medicaid expansion based largely on their ideological objections to Obamacare. But as I reported earlier this week, a new bloc of moderate Republicans in the state—back by the health care industry and business community—have teamed up with Democrats to push Medicaid expansion. They point out that the state has given up, to date, nearly $2 billion in federal funds that could have helped both improve the health of the state's low-income communities while also boosting its economy.

The Kansas House overwhelming passed Medicaid expansion earlier this year. The full state Senate is expected to vote on the issue Monday, according to KCUR. But they would likely need to cobble together a veto-proof majority, since Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has vocally opposed to adopting the program. In fact, Brownback released a letter Thursday, signed with seven other Republican governors, asking Congress to pass the repeal of Obamacare, which would eventually end funding for new sign-ups in the Medicaid expansion and would prevent states such as Kansas signing up in the meantime.

It's unclear if Congress will heed Brownback's request. The GOP's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare was supposed to get a vote in the full House sometime Thursday, but with both conservatives and moderate Republicans balking, the vote was delayed. The Trump administration set a deadline for a Friday vote, saying the White House would otherwise abandon the effort. Congress is currently debating the measure, but vote counts from various news outlets suggest Republicans currently lack enough votes to pass the bill.

[malaise]

1. Get thee to the greatest page

Great news

[wishstar]

2. Good to hear, can only hope this spreads to more states like NC (with new Dem governor in NC)

The more Repub states that take advantage of Medicaid expansion and have good results from ACA, the better for shoring up ACA and Medicaid and making it harder for Ryan and right wing to harm ACA

[Maru Kitteh]

3. Holy mosses

and ferns Batman!



Freaking KANSAS???

[Mister Ed]

4. The state needs those funds badly, thanks to right-wing ideologues.

Years of tax-slashing, trickle-down ideology in the Kansas state government have left the state deeply in the red. My guess is that at this point, some GOP legislators are so desperate to find sources of funding that they'll eagerly accept this federal money, despite the "Obamacare" label attached to it.

[dchill]

5. K&R.

[lillypaddle]

6. K&R nt

[erronis]

7. K&R! Oyster Yo!

[Vinca]

8. Brownback won't go along. If there's anyone crazier than Trump, it's Brownback.

[IronLionZion]

9. That state needs it

and they need to get rid of Brownback.

This Medicaid issue shows the importance of having enough liberals on the Supreme Court to uphold liberal legislation. This expansion should have never been optional.

[NCTraveler]

10. The connection to the SC is necessary to grasp executive limitations....

solely based on who is sitting on the bench. It's so important.

[IronLionZion]

11. If they hadn't stolen the seat from us, we could limit Trump

It's difficult when their party controls all 3 branches

[mountain grammy]

12. I'm happy for the folks in Kansas that will be helped by this

but that state is dysfunctional. Nearly everyone I know who's driven into Kansas has been harassed by law enforcement because of their Colorado tags. I'll never spend a dime in that state.

[beachbum bob]

13. Kansas is a Koch Bothers failure of policy in real time and the people have had enough

[Cha]

14. What?! They're not going with the health killer?!

[Ilsa]

15. Big name op-ed columnists need to cover the

the last 5-10 years (however long) of what Brownback did to Kansas and how he ruined them. There needs to be a clear, detailed PSA about consequences of "starving the beast", and how they now need Medicaid expansion more than ever because they are broke.