The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says Kansas could help 34,000 uninsured residents suffering from mental illness or substance abuse if the state would expand Medicaid under its KanCare program.

While more than half the states have expanded Medicaid, Kansas and Missouri have not. The Kansas Hospital Association says that by rejecting Medicaid expansion, the state has lost out on more than a billion dollars in federal funding.

More people are getting insured, but progress in Kansas is moving more slowly than in the nation as a whole. 

State Representative Jim Kelly is working with a group headed by Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer designed to assist health care providers in rural areas. 

Proponents of expanding Medicaid in Kansas gathered at a forum in Overland Park to talk about KanCare, the state's privatized version of Medicaid. At the forum, leaders from Indiana talked about that conservative state's experience in expanding the health insurance program for the poor.