Key Quote: “In answer to an audience member question on what could be done, Kelly encouraged those present to put pressure on their state legislators. ‘I really believe that if the Legislature both in the House and the Senate had the opportunity to debate and vote, that Medicaid expansion would pass.’”

Late last year (Governor Kelly) unveiled a bipartisan bill called the “Cutting Healthcare Costs for All Kansans Act.” The Hays city commission passed a resolution in support of the act.

Expanding Medicaid would extend healthcare to 150,000 more Kansans, including 700 Ellis County residents, Kelly said. Her team estimates expansion would create more than 23,000 new jobs, more than 200 of which would be in Ellis County.

“It would help address our healthcare worker shortage and it would inject more than $1 billion annually into our urban and rural hospitals and health centers. More than $6 million in new annual healthcare spending would happen right here in Ellis County,” [Governor Kelly] told the audience.

Kelly’s plan would not cost taxpayers any additional monies, she said, “and in fact would reduce healthcare costs in the state… Hays Medical Center, one of the largest employers in the county, has been burdened with over $14 million in uncompensated care in 2023 alone.”

Since summer, Kelly has been traveling across the state talking with Kansans, and then “hoping that you all will talk to your legislators and give your legislators the support they need to pressure Senate leadership and House leadership to put it on the floor and let them debate it.”