Medicaid expansion update
By April Holman, executive director-Alliance for a Health Kansas
Last Friday the Senate voted on the motion to pull SB 355, the Medicaid expansion bill, out of committee. Unfortunately, this vote failed, with 18 'Yes' votes to 17 'Nay' votes. We needed at least 24 'Yes' votes to pass the bill out of committee.
Please consider sending a note of thanks to those senators who voted 'Yes' to thank them for their support. The names and email addresses of supportive senators are listed below.
To say we are disappointed in this outcome is an understatement. We were hopeful that lawmakers had finally heard the voice of Kansans and would do the right thing and hold a full and transparent debate and pass Medicaid expansion. We know many of you feel similarly.
However, the work we have done this session is not lost. Because of the pressure you and other advocates put on lawmakers, we were able to get hearings in both the House and Senate on expansion for the first time in years. More than 900 pieces of written testimony were submitted in favor of Medicaid expansion. Thousands of supportive emails and postcards were delivered to lawmakers. The voice of the people was so loud that the Kansas Legislature had no choice but to talk about it, even after avoiding the conversation for so long.
We will have more information soon about upcoming plans for the summer, where we'll continue to drive the movement for Medicaid expansion in local communities around the state.
In the meantime, we hope to see you at our next Healthy Kansas Advocacy Community meeting on May 8 at 7:00pm.
'Yes' votes on today's SB 355 action
Sen. Rick Billinger, Rick.Billinger@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Elaine Bowers, Elaine.Bowers@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Ethan Corson, Ethan.Corson@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Brenda Dietrich, Brenda.Dietrich@senate.ks.gov
Sen. John Doll, John.Doll@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, Oletha.Faust-Goudeau@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Marci Francisco, Marci.Francisco@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Tom Holland, Tom.Holland@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Cindy Holscher, Cindy.Holscher@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Jeff Longbine, Jeff.Longbine@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, Carolyn.McGinn@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Rob Olson, Rob.Olson@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Kristen O'Shea, Kristen.OShea@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Pat Pettey, Pat.Pettey@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Jeff Pittman, Jeff.Pittman@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Usha Reddi, Usha.Reddi@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Dinah Sykes, Dinah.Sykes@senate.ks.gov
Sen. Mary Ware, Mary.Ware@senate.ks.gov
