House Democratic Leader Jim Ward, of Wichita, confers with other Democrats during floor debate Tuesday. Ward is trying to invoke a rarely used procedure to resurrect a bill killed the day before that would expand the state's Medicaid program to cover 181,000 additional people.

Topeka ? Democrats in the Kansas House invoked a rarely used procedure Tuesday to pull a bill that would expand the state’s Medicaid program out of committee and force it onto the floor of the House for debate Wednesday.

The move comes as a deadline approaches Thursday for most bills to pass out of the chamber where they began or be considered dead for the session.

The Medicaid expansion bill had been the subject of three days of hearings earlier this month in the Health and Human Services Committee, where dozens of supporters, including the Kansas Hospital Association and numerous local chambers of commerce, spoke in favor of it.

House Democratic Leader Jim Ward, of Wichita, confers with other Democrats during floor debate Tuesday. Ward is trying to invoke a rarely used procedure to resurrect a bill killed the day before that would expand the state's Medicaid program to cover 181,000 additional people.

State Medicaid officials estimate it would extend health coverage to about 181,000 individuals at a cost to the state of about $58 million a year. But it would bring in roughly $1 billion a year in federal matching funds, money that would be paid to hospitals and health care providers for treating Medicaid patients.

The bill was blocked in committee Monday, however, when conservatives on the committee voted, 9-8, to table the bill until April 3. That move effectively killed the bill for the session.

Supporters of the bill had pleaded with House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., of Olathe, to exempt the bill from the Thursday “turnaround” deadline, but Ryckman issued a statement Tuesday saying he would not do that.

“It is evident that members on both sides passionately care about this issue; however, the committee voted to table the bill,” Ryckman said. “Long-standing bipartisan rules have governed the committee process in the House. When you trust the process, you trust the results, even though you may not agree with them.”

When the House came into session Tuesday, Minority Leader Jim Ward, D-Wichita, made a motion to invoke a House rule that allows the full House to pull a bill out of committee and force it onto the floor.

Under the rule, that motion must be voted on the following day, and it requires 70 votes to pass, seven more than the simple majority required for most other motions. If it receives those votes, the bill automatically moves to the top of the calendar and must be the first item debated that day.