TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger says she supports an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program encouraged by the federal government’s overhaul of health care.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Praeger said Tuesday that Kansas is hurting poor residents by not expanding Medicaid coverage for the needy and disabled.
The federal health care law promises to pay for most of the expansion.
Praeger already has broken with many fellow Republicans, including Gov. Sam Brownback, over the 2010 federal health care law. The insurance commissioner has praised the overhaul as a step toward universal access to health care.
A resolution expressing opposition to expanding Medicaid is pending in the Kansas House. Brownback has not taken a position on the issue, saying he will leave it to the Legislature.
