TOPEKA, Kan. _ The Kansas House failed by a narrow margin Monday to override Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's veto of a bill that would expand Medicaid to thousands of low-income Kansans.
Lawmakers voted 81-44 to override the governor's veto, three shy of the total needed to pass the bill without his support.
That effectively ends the Medicaid expansion push in Kansas after it passed out of both chambers with Republican and Democratic support earlier this year.
The legislation would have expanded KanCare, the state's privatized Medicaid program, to roughly 150,000 people in the state.
Under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, states can expand Medicaid to low-income people. A hefty federal match covers most of the cost of expansion during the initial years of the program.
Conservative lawmakers in the Kansas Legislature have strongly opposed the expansion legislation, saying that it would hurt the state's finances.
They have also pointed to possible changes on the federal level, where the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump have advocated for a repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
Though that federal push has stopped for now, lawmakers in Kansas have said they still do not trust the federal government to continue to keep its end of the Medicaid expansion effort.
Rep. Shannon Francis, a Republican from Liberal, said Medicaid expansion would take funding from other areas of government.
"This plan does not prioritize rural Kansas," he said in a written explanation of his no vote.
But other Republican and Democratic lawmakers have strongly supported expansion, saying that making more people eligible for Medicaid in the state is the right thing to do.
"If we could even save one life, it would still be worth it," said Rep. Cindy Holscher, an Olathe Democrat.
