Kansas can expand Medicaid in 2019, incoming governor says

TOPEKA -- Gov-elect Laura Kelly says she thinks Kansas can expand Medicaid in the coming year. A task force will develop her expansion proposal.

Kelly, a Democratic state senator who beat Republican Kris Kobach, made Medicaid expansion one of her top priorities on the campaign trail. The state-run federal program provides health care to people with low incomes or with disabilities.

“It’s not up to me to pass Medicaid expansion, it’s up to the Legislature to do that and I fully expect that they will address that issue this (next) year and if they put a bill on my desk and it does what it needs to do, I will sign it,” Kelly said in an interview Thursday.

For states that expand Medicaid eligibility to people who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost of expansion. For a family of four, 138 percent of the federal poverty level is $34,638 in annual income.

Read more: https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article221729555.html