Hutchinson News: Kansas one of only 12 states to decline Medicaid expansion
By Richard Shank | April 21, 2021
This week the Kansas Hospital Association website ticker reports Kansas has, to date, declined nearly $5 billion in federal funds during the past seven years through Medicaid expansion.
Thirty-eight states, including our neighboring states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado, along with the District of Columbia, participate in Medicaid expansion with results exceeding expectations.
Yet Kansas refuses to expand Medicaid, even with the estimated $450 million in enhanced federal matching dollars our existing Medicaid program would receive over two years under the American Rescue Plan Act if we expanded Medicaid tomorrow.
The Medicaid expansion story began in 2014 following the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Federal funds were made available to all 50 states to offset cuts to Medicare, which was included in the final passage of the act.