A broad coalition of health care and advocacy groups is kicking off an election year campaign for Medicaid expansion. Coalition members say Republican Governor Sam Brownback’s rejection of expansion has cost the state more than $1 billion in federal funding and put some Kansas hospitals at risk. Dr. Eric Voth is a vice president at Topeka’s Stormont-Vail hospital.
Brownback and Republican legislative leaders have blocked any serious discussion of expansion for three years. Organizers of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas say they want to make the issue impossible for lawmakers to ignore next year.