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Kansas Hospitals Introduce New Medicaid Expansion Bill

The KHI News Service is an independent news agency based in Topeka, primarily focused on health policy and state government issues.
The KHI News Service is an independent news agency based in Topeka, primarily focused on health policy and state government issues.

Committees in the Kansas House and Senate have introduced a Medicaid expansion bill modeled after one approved by Indiana’s conservative Republican governor and legislature. The Kansas proposal is designed to appeal to the Republicans who control the state legislature. It would require the people expected to gain coverage...approximately 150,000 of them...to help pay for the benefit. The proposed plan would also cancel coverage for those who fall behind in their payments. Tom Bell is president of the Kansas Hospital Association. He says his members understand they’re facing an uphill battle.


Bell says that over the last three years, hospitals and other providers in Kansas have lost out on nearly $950 million in federal funds due to the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion.

Jim McLean, Executive Editor of KHI News Service, oversees the KHI News Service. From 2005 until 2013, McLean coordinated all communications activities at KHI as Vice President for Public Affairs. The position he now occupies was created as part of a strategic initiative to solidify the editorial and operational independence of the KHI News Service. Prior to coming to KHI, McLean had a distinguished career as a journalist, serving as the news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and a managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal. During his more than 20 years in Kansas journalism, McLean won numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 1997, McLean and two Capital-Journal colleagues received the Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise Award from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism for a series of stories on the state’s business climate. McLean holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University.