Medicaid change starts with Legislature

Kansas’s hardline opposition to Medicaid expansion has to change, if health care and health outcomes are going to grow in rural Kansas. Given the governor’s position, and a bill (HB 2552) passed in 2014, that change will have to begin in the Kansas Legislature. A change in the Republican moderate-conservative power distribution coupled with some pick-ups in Democratic seats this November could provide the legislative majority required by HB 2552.
A harbinger of that change is the serious challenge being given to Republican State Representative Ron Highland of Wabaunsee County who is facing a young, well-funded, and skillfully organized challenge from Rossville, Democrat Adrienne Olejnik. Similar changes in Johnson County and other districts around the state also seem more likely come November 8.
The Medicaid problem got a pretty good airing through announcements made recently by Stormont-Vail, a big health care provider in northeast Kansas. Stormont-Vail and its Cotton-O’Neil division announced …
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