COLUMNS

The time is now for Medicaid expansion

Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, is the Kansas House minority leader.

According to several different polls, more than 70 percent of Kansans support Medicaid expansion. This legislative session, the Kansas House of Representatives responded to voters and held the vigorous debate the issue warrants. We worked across the aisle to address the critical needs of our constituents.

It’s the Senate’s turn to listen.

Expanding Medicaid would give more than 130,000 hardworking Kansans (including children and veterans) access to vital, affordable health care. Implementation would require referring all able-bodied adults who are unemployed or working fewer than 20 hours a week to a job training program.

The House bill requires each participant to pay a $25 monthly fee for the program.

It would allow the child who has been forced to ration insulin the medication they need, the veteran to have immediate care instead of languishing on a wait-list. We have heard countless stories like these from our neighbors across Kansas, and it is time to act.

Expansion would strengthen our hospitals in rural areas, protect access to critical care for rural communities, as well as revitalize those economies — expansion could create 4,000 new jobs in just the next five years, while returning billions of our tax dollars to Kansas.

This is a good, bipartisan bill that the state has studied for five years.

We had a robust discussion on the House floor. A bipartisan coalition came together and put people over politics — the Senate must do the same.

When we return to the Statehouse in May, Medicaid expansion deserves at least a discussion on the Senate floor. I urge you to contact your senator and tell them to vote “yes” on expansion. Kansas loses more than $2 million every day we fail to implement Medicaid Expansion.

The time to act is here, and it is now.

Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, is the Kansas House minority leader.