March 2024

I’ve been right, and KanCare expansion advocates are wrong.As Governor Kelly and Kansas Democrats continue to push KanCare Expansion for able bodied working Kansans, it would be nice if they’d use some good sense.But good sense and KanCare expansion don’t mesh.Instead, the experience in medicaid expansion states illustrates that truly vulnerable disabled Kansans will lose KanCare funding first.Forty states have expanded Medicaid, and, as research shows, they have almost triple the number of people they expected.Compared with initial estimates of only 6.5 million people, expansion states instead have nearly 19 million new recipients.That number is only growing, with more able-bodied adults signing on to the government dole from coast to coast.The per person cost to taxpayers is at least 64% higher than predicted.At the heart of Medicaid expansion is a perverse incentive.This has been clearly illustrated in Indiana, where they now have a $1 billion shortfall due to Medicaid Expansion.The federal government has agreed to pay 90% of its costs, yet for traditional KanCare/Medicaid recipients, it pays a little under 65%.For the people who run Indiana’s budget, their “logical solution” for closing the budget shortfall was to cut funding for people who only bring in 65 cents on the dollar, instead of those who bring in 90 cents.It doesn’t matter that the 90-cent group includes those who are able-bodied and could receive health insurance elsewhere.