Kansas governor vetoes Medicaid expansion, leaving 150,000 poor residents uncovered

Republican Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have expanded Medicaid to approximately 150,000 low-income Kansas residents.

Brownback moved quickly to reject the bill. The legislature only officially delivered the legislation on Thursday morning, and he had 10 days to make a decision. Clearly the governor had already made up his mind.

This is, obviously, a huge setback for Medicaid expansion efforts — but the fight isn’t completely over. The Kansas legislature is likely to explore whether they can garner enough support to override the governor’s veto, which would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate.

Specifically, Medicaid expansion would need 27 votes in the 40-member Senate and 84 votes in the 120-member House. It received 25 votes in the Senate and 81 votes in the House, meaning the bill is just a few votes shy of a veto-proof majority.

Kansas hospitals, it appears, plan to be involved in pushing for a veto override, according to Marketplace’s Dan Gorenstein.

Further reading:

• Vox’s Dylan Matthews and Jacob Gorenstein surveyed 18 states that haven’t expanded Medicaid to find out where they stand on the policy
• The New York Times recently published an excellent history of Medicaid and how it has become more entrenched in the American social safety net with Obamacare’s expansion.
• One fact that surprised me about this Medicaid expansion fight: Many of the legislators fighting for the program are Republicans.

Will you join us?

Our biggest supporters are our readers — and we’re so grateful to everyone who has made a contribution during our September campaign. We’re less than 1,000 contributions away from reaching our goal for the month, which in turn will allow us to say yes more often when our incredible journalists come to us with questions they want to answer and projects they want to pursue. Will you make a contribution before the month ends and support our policy coverage through 2024 and beyond?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via