(Updated to include comments from Masterson, Sykes and Longbine; also notes that a separate medical marijuana bill was double-referred; edits throughout).
Gov. Laura Kelly is making another run at honoring her biggest campaign promise of expanding Medicaid, this time with revenue from legalizing medical marijuana.
Kelly on Monday announced new plans to push for expanding Medicaid for perhaps as many as 165,000 Kansans while getting the Legislature to authorize medical marijuana, which she said would bring in an estimated $50 million in taxes a year.
The latest iteration of Medicaid expansion is very different from last year’s legislation, which was bottled up in a committee as a bargaining chip to get a constitutional amendment on abortion passed.
Last year’s plan included a reinsurance program that was aimed at reducing health insurance premiums on the exchanges by offsetting the costs of large medical claims with payments to health insurers. Reinsurance willl not be part of the governor’s proposal.
The new proposal also does not apply a surcharge to hospitals like last year’s proposal.
“In the face of the worst health crisis our country has seen in a century, I am even more committed to delivering health care, jobs, federal dollars and protections for our hospitals to our state through expansion of Medicaid,” she said.
The bill would expand Medicaid to Kansans earning up to 138% of the poverty level, while establishing a regulatory framework for cultivation, testing, prescriptions, distribution and purchase of medical marijuana.
Coincidentially, Kelly revealed her medical marijuana proposal a couple days after Senate leadership double-referred a separate medical marijuana bill to the public health and federal and state affairs committeees, effectively killing that legislation.
Senate President Ty Masterson expressed reservations about the governor’s proposal.
“While it is noteworthy the governor is acknowledging the high fiscal note by proposing this creative funding mechanism, creating a new welfare program for able-bodied adults is not in the best interests of Kansans,” Masterson said in a statement.
“Any new revenue stream should be returned to the people, while we preserve Medicaid for those whom it was intended – the elderly, the disabled, and other vulnerable Kansans.”
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes called on the Senate to pass expansion.
“The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has always been short-sighted,” Sykes said.
“The need is more urgent than ever as we continue to weather this pandemic, high unemployment rates, and economic uncertainty,” she said in a statement.
“Vulnerable Kansans deserve access to affordable healthcare, which leads to not only healthier communities, but a stronger economy with the more than 13,000 new jobs it creates.”
The governor’s proposed budget already includes $19 million for Medicaid expansion for half a year, counting on the federal government to match 90% of the state’s share going forward.
Kelly’s proposal wraps together two measures that have been approved by a majority of states across the country.
As of early November, 36 states, including neighboring Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado, have approved comprehensive, publicly available medical marijuana/cannabis programs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Thirty-eight states, including Missouri and Oklahoma, have expanded Medicaid.
Kelly hopes that Republicans in the Legislature who have fought Medicaid expansion will see that both elements in the bill are popular with the public.
“I am hoping that they will set aside the political party differences and recognize that both components of this bill – Medicaid expansion and medical marijuana legalization – are extremely popular with their constituents,” Kelly said.
A poll by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hay State last fall showed that 67% of the 417 Kansans polled “strongly supported” or “somewhat supported” legalizing recreational marijuana outright for individuals 21 and older.
The same poll showed 63.5% of those polled supported expanding Medicaid, although only a third had given the issue a lot of thought.
Republican House leadership greeted the latest proposal cooly on Monday.
“It’s too early to talk about another Laura Kelly tax to expand government,” House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. said in a statement.
“We are still focused on finding answers to the staggering levels of fraud in the unemployment program and finding ways to make sure Kansas schools and businesses don’t have to pay for the governor’s mistakes,” he said.
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins also gave the proposal a thumbs down.
“Gov. Kelly envisions a Kansas where you can choose not to work and the taxpayers will foot the bill for you to stay home and smoke supposedly medicinal marijuana,” Hawkins said in a statement.
“While the Governor is focused on high hopes and pipe dreams, Republicans continue working to create jobs and rebuild the once strong economy Gov. Kelly has destroyed.”
Supporters of Medicaid expansion think they’re close in both the House and the Senate despite moderate Republicans suffering heavy losses last year.
April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said she believes expansion is three votes short of passage in the House and the Senate.
“I don’t sense that we’re a long way away,” Holman said. “But we definitely lost ground from last year because we had much more cushion.”
The alliance reaffirmed its commitment to Medicaid expansion on Monday but still needs to talk over the medical marijuana part of the governor’s bill.
“This is not something that the alliance has been working on,” she said. “We just don’t know. It’s all new for us.
“We’re all still unified in our support for Medicaid expansion,” she said. “But the bill that’s going to be introduced and this proposal, we still need to work that out as a group.”
Republican state Sen. Jeff Longbine of Emporia was doubtful that the latest proposal from the governor would pass.
“I don’t think she’ll find the votes in the Senate for either one,” Longbine said of medical marijuana and expansion. “I don’t think there’s enough votes for either one.”
