Topeka ? With the number of uninsured Kansans increasing, state government leaders say expansion of health insurance will be one of the top issues of the upcoming legislative session.

Kansas Health Policy Authority has conducted meetings across the state to get input on reform options to present to the Legislature and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in November.

“Having this conversation around Kansas makes sense,” Sebelius said. “I’m encouraged by what I’m hearing.”

There are 47 million Americans without coverage, up from 45 million the year before, according to the Census Bureau. The number of Kansans without insurance has increased from 10 percent to 11 percent.

In approaching the issue in Kansas, proposals have been floated from privatizing current government programs to putting government in charge of most health coverage.

Sebelius, in comments Friday, seemed to indicate she was seeking a middle-of-the-road approach, saying more government assistance was needed for those in poverty while the private insurance market may be the answer for other groups.

In recent remarks to Republicans, House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, spoke against what he described as the socialized medicine plan in Massachusetts. And Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, said Sebelius wanted to install a Massachusetts-type plan and “sell it as ‘for the children.'”

Neufeld also said the inability to enroll some in low-cost or free health insurance shows that “sometimes government programs don’t have any value to our citizens.”

Sebelius, a Democrat, and Neufeld have often clashed on health insurance, but Sebelius pointed to compromise health legislation earlier this year and said more may come in 2008. One of those compromises was approval of a plan, which hasn’t been implemented yet, that will provide funds to low-income Kansas families to purchase private health insurance.

“There is renewed enthusiasm for children’s insurance,” Sebelius said of her proposal to provide coverage to all children up to age 5.

Furthermore, she added, “The notion that we need some help for small-business owners, probably not in the single market, but in group coverage, is making sense.”

Sebelius also has said an increase in the state cigarette tax may be part of a funding strategy for expanded health care, but Republican leaders have generally opposed the idea.