Kansas' Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning have reached an agreement to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That will extend health coverage to some 150,000 low-income Kansans.
It comes with agreement on a provision Denning has demanded to limit enrollment by lowering premiums for private insurance, keeping more people in private insurance but making it more affordable. They might be looking at Idaho's recent experience—enrollments in the state's ACA exchange were down from last year by 14,000 after around 53,000 have signed up so far under the state's new Medicaid expansion. The Kansas Health Institute estimates that about 55,000 people would drop private insurance for Medicaid.
Charles Gaba picked up on a fun nugget in the governor's press release announcing the compromise proposal—a low-key slam on the Trump administration and other red states' work requirements. The proposal "includes a robust work referral program that promotes self-reliance for non-working Medicaid beneficiaries," the press release says, "while limiting costly administrative red tape that drives up overall costs to taxpayers." That's a reference to the ridiculous amounts of money states are spending to set up the tracking systems they're creating to punish poor people.
There's opposition from other Republicans in the state senate, but there are still bipartisan majorities in both chambers to pass it. Thus far, anyway.