A top Kansas Republican has committed to holding the first hearing on Medicaid expansion in four years.
Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, confirmed to The Capital-Journal that she will have a hearing on Medicaid expansion after turnaround, a term for the legislative deadline for nonexempt bills.
Turnaround comes on Feb. 23 this year, after which there are six more weeks until first adjournment. Landwehr hasn’t set a date for the hearing.
“The governor got it introduced as an exempt bill, so we’re not on a timeframe in which it has to be heard,” Landwehr said. “Everybody will know at the same time when I decide to hear it.”
“We’ll see where the chips lie,” she added.
The last time Medicaid expansion got a public hearing in the Kansas Legislature was 2020, involving a bipartisan deal between Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and then-Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning that ultimately failed.
Kelly has long pushed for Medicaid expansion in Kansas, but the Republican-controlled Legislature has done little to act on her requests. Her efforts have failed each of the past five years.