photo by: Elvyn Jones

Sen. Tom Holland makes a point at a forum he and Rep. Eileen Horn hosted Sunday in Baldwin City on issues before the 2019 Kansas Legislature.

Two Douglas County Democratic legislators said Sunday that a Medicaid expansion bill that passed the House will have a difficult time gaining Senate approval despite enjoying the support of the majority of lawmakers in the upper chamber.

Sen. Tom Holland, of Baldwin City, and Eileen Horn, of Lawrence, told about 20 constituents Sunday at a legislative forum at the Baldwin City Lumberyard Arts Center that 21 Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans support the Medicaid expansion bill the House passed on March 21. That is enough support to win approval in the 40-member Senate. However, Holland said the bill will likely never make it out of committee because Senate leadership opposes expansion. There are ways in Senate rules to circumvent the committee process, but Holland said that would require the votes of 27 senators, a level of support that expansion doesn’t presently enjoy.

Horn said House leadership also opposed Medicaid expansion, but it won on a floor vote through a “gut and go” process that substituted the Medicaid expansion language for that of another bill on the House floor. The bill would provide Medicaid coverage for about 130,000 Kansans now without health insurance, he said. Currently, Medicaid is available only to older Kansans who don’t qualify for Medicare, children and pregnant women.

Horn said there was a debate in the House about expanding coverage to healthy Kansans able to work. Horn said in her view the bill would address those in need because it only extends Medicaid to able-bodied residents earning less than $12,000 a year.

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act is supported by the state’s hospital administrators because it would allow them to get 60 cents on the dollar for treatment of Medicaid patients, Horn said. Currently, hospitals are often forced to write off the bills of uninsured patients, which has contributed to the closure of rural hospitals in the state, Horn said.

Another concern of opponents is the possible cost of expansion, Horn said. The bill does allow the state to opt out of the expansion if the Federal government cuts Medicaid payments to the state of the expansion’s cost to less than the 90 percent now required under the Affordable Care Act, Horn said.

Horn and Holland told those in attendance their emails and letter to Republican Senate leadership in support of Medicaid expansion would be noticed despite the messages originating outside the Senate leaders’ home districts. Holland said one issue that gained traction in the Kansas Legislature because of widespread constituent support was legalization of medical marijuana. In response, Holland introduced a bill in the Senate allowing the medical use of marijuana.

“We moved from a place from constituents asking about medical marijuana to demanding it,” he said, “There’s going to be a hearing on the bill. We’ll see what happens. Maybe there will be a vote on it next year.”

Seven of those in attendance were members of the gun safety advocacy group Moms Demand Action. They expressed concern about the Legislature’s failure to approve “reasonable” gun safety measures while moving bills such as the one the House approved last week that reduced from 21 to 18 the minimum ages to get a concealed carry license. Horn and Holland agreed the Legislature was friendly to the gun lobby and routinely voted down reasonable efforts, such as the banning of bump stocks that make some rifles fully automatic.

Nonetheless, Horn was was hopeful the Legislature would approve later this session a bill preventing those convicted of domestic violence from buying a gun, saying Moms Demand Action’s support of the bill was important.

“There can be support for victims,” she said. “For me, it is important to find those cracks.”

Holland said the “Golden Age” property tax bill he introduced has passed the Senate. The bill would freeze the appraised value for taxing purposes of homes of less than $350,000 that are owned by those 65 or older with a household income of less than $50,000 a year, he said. The bill would allow rebates for taxes a homeowner pays when the appraised value increased above the frozen level. The rebates would come from state taxes the homeowner paid.

“We’re halfway there,” Holland said of the bill’s Senate approval. “We’ll see what the House does.”