A small window of opportunity appears to be opening that may allow consideration of expanding Medicaid in Kansas.

The House Vision 2020 Committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, got the ball rolling by holding hearings and drafting legislation outlining a Medicaid expansion plan designed to be politically acceptable to state legislators who oppose the Affordable Care Act. Several other states that initially had opposed Medicaid expansion have taken similar steps; Kansas is one of 14 states that hasn’t found a way to tap into federal Medicaid expansion funds.

At the end of February, the effort got another boost when Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, attempted to amend the Medicaid expansion proposal into an unrelated bill on the floor of the Kansas House. In exchange for Ward agreeing to drop his amendment, House leaders agreed to allow a hearing on expanding Medicaid, which is known in Kansas as KanCare.

A few days later, while addressing the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents, Gov. Sam Brownback also seemed to soften his opposition to the Medicaid expansion. Brownback initially took a strong stand against accepting the expansion because the state couldn’t depend on continued federal funding for the program. Last week, perhaps motivated by the state’s current financial woes and pressure from the state’s health care providers, he took a more moderate tone, saying any plan would have to be initiated by the Legislature and include a means to cover the expansion costs — which the Vision 2020 Committee plan does.

The federal government agreed to pay 100 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion for the first three years, although Kansas already has missed out on some of that money. After 2016, the federal contribution will taper down to 90 percent by 2020.

If legislators are concerned about long-term federal funding for the program, they can put conditions on the expansion. In the worst-case scenario, if federal matching funds go away entirely, Kansas can cut back on the expansion, but in the meantime, an estimated 140,000 to 170,000 Kansans would be eligible for Medicaid health care benefits. That not only helps individual Kansans but also provides a financial boost for Kansas health care providers and the state economy as a whole.

“The governor and other legislative leaders have said they rejected a federal program, the Affordable Care Act, but would look at a Kansas plan,” Sloan said last month. The Vision 2020 Committee has created such a plan — one that provides some political distance from ACA and can serve as a solid starting point for further legislative action specifically tailored to the needs of Kansas.

The committee plan still will face political hurdles, but it’s good to see some basis on which to at least discuss the possibility of providing Medicaid health benefits to thousands of Kansans who need that help.