Kansas lawmakers from both sides of the aisle share their views about expanding the state's Medicaid program, known as KanCare, during a forum at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park on Jan. 5, 2016. Those participating included, from left: Sens. Jim Denning, R-Overland Park; Laura Kelly, D-Topeka; and Jeff King, R-Independence; and Reps. Jerry Henry, D-Atchison; and Mark Hutton, R-Wichita.

Overland Park ? A former Republican president of the Kansas Senate said Tuesday that expanding the state’s Medicaid program, known as KanCare, as allowed under federal law would actually benefit the state general fund to the tune of more than $200 million a year.

“We can protect the state general fund, and we can provide health care to about … about 138,000 Kansans who don’t have that care today,” said Dave Kerr, a Hutchinson businessman who served 20 years in the Legislature, including four years as Senate President from 2001 through 2004.

Although the state would have to pay 5-10 percent of the cost of covering those individuals under KanCare, Kerr said Kansas would save hundreds of millions of dollars more by reducing or eliminating other categories of health care expenses including prisoner health care costs and grants to community mental health centers.

Kerr was among several people who made presentations during a forum on KanCare expansion held Tuesday at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park. The forum was sponsored by the Kansas Hospital Association and several health care advocacy groups.

But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said getting an expansion bill through the Legislature will be an uphill battle, despite bipartisan support for some sort of expansion. And some said it will likely take more than one legislative session to craft a plan.

“I think this is a 16-month effort,” said Senate Vice President Jeff King, R-Independence.

Kansas lawmakers from both sides of the aisle share their views about expanding the state's Medicaid program, known as KanCare, during a forum at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park on Jan. 5, 2016. Those participating included, from left: Sens. Jim Denning, R-Overland Park; Laura Kelly, D-Topeka; and Jeff King, R-Independence; and Reps. Jerry Henry, D-Atchison; and Mark Hutton, R-Wichita.

Sen. Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, agreed, saying, “We won’t have a final product at the end of this session.”

But Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, said it’s important for lawmakers at least to begin a discussion about Medicaid expansion.

“I think it’s absolutely imperative that we have the debate this year, that we discuss it,” she said.

King’s position on Medicaid expansion is being watched closely, not just because he’s part of the GOP leadership team, but because he represents Independence, whose community hospital was forced to close in October.

Hospital officials cited Kansas’ failure to expand Medicaid as one of the contributing factors, noting that part of the funding for the federal program involves reduced Medicare payments to hospitals, money they had received for treating the uninsured.

But King said Medicaid expansion would not have saved the Independence hospital, although he said it would have given the community more options to establish some other type of health care facility.

Currently in Kansas, working-age adults are not eligible for Medicaid unless they are pregnant or have dependent children. They also cannot have annual incomes above roughly 25 percent of the federal poverty level.

Under the Affordable Care Act, however, states can expand their programs to cover all individuals and families with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level, or $33,465 a year for a family of four.

For those who become newly eligible under an expansion, the federal government pays 95 percent of the cost through 2017, a rate that gradually falls to 90 percent in 2020 and thereafter.

Kansas, however, is one of 16 states that has so far refused to consider such a move. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback remains a staunch opponent of the federal program, and GOP leaders in the Kansas House last year refused to allow a floor debate or vote on the issue.

Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, sparked applause from the crowd of about 200 people when he said Brownback’s opposition is probably the biggest obstacle to moving forward on the Medicaid expansion issue.

“If you really want to move the needle on this issue, it takes leadership from our governor,” he said. “You look at all the other state programs, (like) Indiana, the governor took the lead, and that’s really where it’s going to have to start.”

“I’m really glad that Rep. Hutton made that point,” Kelly responded. “We also have got to get the attention of the leadership in the House and the Senate.”

King and Denning both said that any Medicaid expansion bill would have to be fully funded long into the future, which Denning said he believes will be nearly impossible.

He said there are “lots of holes in the projections” about how much an expansion program would cost, adding, “We’ve had our share of missed projections in the last four years.”

King said any expansion plan in Kansas would have to include what he called a “work effort” requirement, meaning that any able-bodied adult enrolled in the program would either have to be employed or enrolled in school or some kind of work training program.

But he also said he hopes the Legislature will at least begin discussing the issue in 2016.

“There is a bill being proposed that is very close to being introduced that we can kick the tires on, that we can look at inserting, look at deleting, that we can set guideposts,” he said. “I know I have my guideposts that I think need to be there. I know others do as well. … It’s not going to be short, it’s not going to be easy. It may not even be this year.”