It’s good that a bill to expand Medicaid in Kansas has been introduced in the Legislature. It’s a debate that lawmakers need to have even with the looming threat that Congress will pull the plug on Obamacare.

State Rep. Sue Concannon, R-Beloit, asked for the bill to be introduced. “What we heard during the campaign season was that there are a lot of Kansans who want us to talk about this,” she said.

Concannon is vice chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. The committee is set to hold hearings on expansion in early February.

Kansas has one of the strictest eligibility requirements for Medicaid of any state. It is available only to pregnant women, children, disabled adults and seniors who meet certain income guidelines. Medicaid expansion provided for under the Affordable Care Act extends Medicaid to those younger than 65 whose family income is at or below 133 percent of federal poverty guidelines.

The federal government paid for 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion for 2014 through 2016. Federal funding dropped to 97 percent this year and will gradually decrease to 90 percent by 2020.

Kansas is among 19 mostly conservative states that have refused to participate in Medicaid expansion out of opposition to Obamacare. Gov. Sam Brownback has said repeatedly that Obamacare is part of the problem in Kansas, not the solution. The governor blamed Obamacare for cuts in Medicare that he said have been far more devastating to health care in Kansas than any benefits Medicaid expansion could provide.

But the Kansas Hospital Association estimates Kansas has forfeited more than $1.6 billion — and counting — in federal funds by not participating in expansion since the program began on Jan. 1, 2014. An estimated 150,000 Kansans would be covered by the expansion.

That’s a lot of residents to overlook and significant funding to dismiss.

There is the issue of Congress, which has already taken steps to repeal Obamacare. But it’s important not to confuse the unpopularity of Obamacare with the popularity of certain aspects of Obamacare. In other words, even if Obamacare is repealed, it’s reasonable to expect that aspects of the program, including Medicaid expansion, could continue.

“We need to at least have a thorough discussion about the needs of 150,000 Kansans who don’t have health insurance,” said state Rep. John Wilson, a Lawrence Democrat. “And we need to get a sense of what it would cost us should we want to provide coverage for them if it’s in a different form than under the Affordable Care Act.”

Wilson is right. Kansas has left a lot of money on the table by not participating in Medicaid expansion and the state has yet to offer an alternative solution. It’s past time to put the politics of Obamacare aside and look seriously at what federal Medicaid expansion might do to help Kansans.