The REACH Foundation supports KanCare expansion to close the coverage gap for working Kansans and protect the state’s health care workforce and health systems that are the primary source of care for low-income families.
- Kansas is one of only 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid, leaving 165,000 Kansans in a health coverage gap without affordable options. Lack of health coverage, particularly during a pandemic, has placed Kansas workers, hospitals and health care systems at risk.
- Expanding KanCare will inject hundreds of millions of dollars into critically needed health care systems and the economy, increasing jobs and tax revenue, and providing the state savings. By law, 90% of the costs of expanding KanCare will be funded by the federal government. In addition, Kansas is forfeiting federal recovery funds by continuing to not act.
- Declining expansion does not save the state money nor reduce the need for health care. More than two-thirds of adults eligible for KanCare expansion have jobs or reside in working households – most employed in the service industry, construction, retail and other small enterprises that are the backbone of Kansas communities.