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 State lawmakers in the Republican-controlled senate voted in favor
of the measure on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump's
efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare,
ended with the bill being pulled from a vote.
Republican Governor Sam Brownback said the bill also failed to
eliminate waiting lists for disability services, did not add work
requirements and was not budget neutral.
"The cost of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare is irresponsible and
unsustainable," he said.
He added it was "unwise to undertake such a drastic change" to the
state's Medicaid program while work on an ACA overhaul was underway
in Washington.
"I will not support this legislation that continues to fund
organizations that undermine a culture of life," he said, referring
to groups such as Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of
reproductive services including abortions.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that "the overwhelming
majority of Kansans" support the health care provider and the
expansion of Medicaid in the state.
The Republican-controlled House, which passed the bill last month
81-44, quickly took up a debate on overriding Brownback's veto on
Thursday, but a vote was postponed.
"You are going to put a dagger right through the heart of our small
communities," Republican Representative Leonard Mastroni, who voted
in support of expansion, told the House in Topeka after Brownback's
veto.
In the House, 84 lawmakers would need to vote in favor of the
override for it to advance.
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The failed Obamacare replacement bill in Washington, pushed by House
Speaker Paul Ryan, would have ended the ACA's expansion of Medicaid,
the federal and state funded insurance program for the poor and
disabled.
Kansas was not among the 31 states that in 2016 had opted to expand
Medicaid, with the federal government footing much of the cost under
Obamacare.
With the ACA's enhanced federal funding, Medicaid expansion in
Kansas, effective Jan. 1, 2018, would cost the state an estimated
$31 million in fiscal 2018, which begins July 1, and $67 million in
fiscal 2019 with more than 180,000 additional recipients, according
to estimates cited in a legislative report on the bill.
Without enhanced federal matching funds, the state's costs would
balloon to $465 million by fiscal 2019.
(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Richard
Chang and Lisa Shumaker)
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