(Updated to include comment from Senate majority leader).
As the Legislature broke for a month-long break on Friday evening, Democrats made their move to force a vote on Medicaid expansion in the Senate.
In the last action of the day Friday, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley made a motion to pull the Medicaid expansion bill passed by the House out of a Senate committee.
“The purpose of this motion is to allow for a debate and vote for Medicaid expansion on the floor of the Kansas Senate in this legislative session,” Hensley said.
“This motion is made on behalf of the thousands of Kansans who have contacted their senator directly to express their desire for the Kansas Senate to debate this important issue during the 2019 session of the Kansas Legislature,” Hensley said.
Hensley’s motion won’t be voted on until May 1 after lawmakers return from their break.
They will need support from 24 senators to get the bill out of committee and 27 votes to get the legislation above the line for a debate in the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning said he had anticipated the move throughout the week. Denning said he’s skeptical that Hensley has the numbers on his side to prevail.
“We’ll find out May 1.”
Hensley’s chief of staff acknowledged it’s an uphill fight, but hoped that as senators return home from their break they will hear from their constituents on the issue.
The Medicaid expansion bill has been bottled up in a Senate committee since mid-March when House Democrats teamed with moderate Republicans to use a procedural maneuver to force a vote and ultimately pass the expansion legislation.
Since then, Gov. Laura Kelly has castigated the Senate for not moving on the legislation.
At a news conference this week, Kelly called on the Senate to stop stalling and act on Medicaid expansion, which could potentially benefit 150,000 Kansans.
Senate President Susan Wagle quickly responded to Kelly, saying that the plan passed by the House was not acceptable.
She has said the issue will be studied over the next year before the Legislature returns in 2020.
Wagle has left open the possibility of expanding Medicaid but with the possibility of caveats such as a work requirement or drug testing.
She also suggested changing the threshold for people to qualify for the expanded Medicaid program to 100 percent of the poverty level in comparison to the 138 percent now in the bill.
“I want plenty of time to do what’s best for Kansas and to do what’s best for all Kansans who are paying the bill,” Wagle said during her news conference.
A week ago, the Kansas Hospital Association sent a letter to senators, arguing against interim hearings.
“Requesting an interim on Medicaid expansion made sense five years ago when these discussions began,” the association wrote.
“The few states that expanded Medicaid as soon as the law allowed were just starting out and it was unclear what types of alternative policies would be allowed,” they wrote.
Now, 36 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid, laying out a path for what could be successful, the group said in its letter.
Besides, the Legislature has already held numerous hearings on Medicaid expansion and accepted hundreds of pieces of testimony, the organization argued.
“We do not need another interim on Medicaid expansion,” the group said. “This issue is too critical for our state to delay action until the 2020 legislative session.”
