Whether moderate or conservative, Republicans in the Kansas Legislature are not pleased with Governor Laura Kelly’s plan to expand Medicaid through funding from medical marijuana.
17th District Senator Jeff Longbine has supported Medicaid expansion and says medical marijuana should get a look — just not in a package deal. He says he’s “confused” by the governor’s plan.
Longbine says the results of last year’s elections installed more lawmakers vehemently opposed to expanding Medicaid, so he doesn’t see any hope of expansion for at least the next four years.
In the House, 76th District Representative Eric Smith says the two items separately are non-starters for him, and the combination doesn’t help. Smith — who is also Coffey County’s undersheriff — also thinks it will be quite some time before Medicaid expansion is viable. And that’s without medical marijuana in the mix.
Kansas is currently one of 12 states not to expand Medicaid and one of three not to pass medical marijuana.
6:30 am Tuesday: Governor links Medicaid expansion to medical marijuana passage
Long a supporter of Medicaid expansion, Governor Laura Kelly has added a new feature to her plan.
On Monday, the governor announced her plan to legalize medical marijuana — and to use revenues from those sales to pay for expanding Medicaid.
If passed, the medical marijuana component of the Kelly plan would replace reinsurance and the Medicaid Expansion Surcharge, which are eliminated from a compromise plan discussed last year in the Legislature but never passed. Kelly says the bill, modeled after a plan approved in Ohio and similar to one proposed by Republicans in the Kansas House, should “more than offset” the state general fund costs of expanding Medicaid.
If this moves ahead unchanged, Medicaid will be expanded to take advantage of a full 90-10 match from the federal government. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Environment would be responsible for overseeing the health side of the medical marijuana program while the Department of Revenue would be responsible for regulating producers, licenses and fees and the Board of Healing Arts would handle certifications for doctors.
Kansas is currently one of 12 states not to expand Medicaid and one of three not to pass medical marijuana.
The majority of Republicans have opposed both Medicaid expansion and medical marijuana in the past, so it remains to be seen how successful this effort will be. Local lawmakers will offer their perspectives Tuesday on KVOE and KVOE.com.
