NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Advocacy groups are being told that there will be a hearing on Medicaid Expansion at the Kansas Statehouse this session, but Hutchinson Democratic Rep. Jason Probst is skeptical.
"I'll not hold my breath until I actually see the hearing happen," Probst said. "Over the years, we've had these performance based hearings, where we have a roundtable discussion or we bring in people to talk about the issue, but never with the actual intention to work a bill, or to actually advance the policy or have a actual discussion about it. I'm going to reserve my judgment and my hope on that, until I actually see it happen."
Kansas has been behind most of the rest of the country in terms of expanding Medicaid. Probst supports the idea.
"We're one of ten states now that hasn't done this," Probst said. "It only hurts our communities, our healthcare infrastructure and our residents. There's a lot of false narrative out there about who benefits from this and who doesn't. The bottom line is, this is a tool we can use to try to shore up the healthcare system and it's a tool we can use to support people in our state who are working, but who are working at jobs that don't provide health insurance."
Part of the issue in previous sessions regarding healthcare policy more generally is that legislative leadership didn't want to see other healthcare bills amended to become Medicaid Expansion vehicles.
"There's a lot of healthcare policy that has been bound up, for the last several years, because of this overwhelming fear from the majority leadership to allow a discussion on Medicaid Expansion," Probst said. "They are so fearful of getting that in front of the members in an open dialogue, that we have actively avoided updating some parts of healthcare law that really need to be done. That's really frustrating. Medicaid Expansion is really, really important, but its not the only issue that we need to be addressing in the world of healthcare."
Kansas House leadership may hold the hearings, but unless Speaker Dan Hawkins changes his position, or another health care bill gets amended on the floor, it's extremely unlikely that it will get past that point.
CLICK HERE to download the Hutch Post mobile app.
CLICK HERE to sign up for the daily Hutch Post email news update.