A GOP leader’s Medicaid expansion move has roiled Kansas.

Former Medicaid expansion opponent becomes an advocate

TOPEKA, Kan. — Jim Denning once symbolized what for Medicaid expansion supporters was wrong with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. Now, the Kansas Senate majority leader is an expansion champion who’s working with the state’s Democratic governor on the issue and taking heat from some of his fellow GOP lawmakers.

Denning recently faced criticism from Republicans for appearing at events with Gov. Laura Kelly to promote an expansion plan that she and Denning drafted. Some GOP lawmakers worry that he’s undercutting their strategy of holding Medicaid expansion hostage to pressure fellow lawmakers into moving forward with their top priority: an anti-abortion measure. Some also see his efforts as a calculated ploy for voter support in his suburban Kansas City district.

Less than a year ago, Denning’s face appeared on protest signs and leaflets, and banners hung briefly in the Statehouse rotunda proclaimed him among the GOP leaders with “blood on their hands.” His opposition to an expansion bill Kelly favored was key to preventing its passage.

Denning’s shift “is something that’s a little bit unexpected,” said April Holman, executive director of the pro-expansion Alliance for a Healthy Kansas. “But it’s a breath of fresh air after a long, long period of no collaboration across the aisle, or very little.”

Thirty-six states have expanded Medicaid or had voters approve ballot initiatives to do so. In Kansas, Republican governors’ staunch opposition thwarted expansion despite bipartisan legislative majorities favoring it before Kelly took office early in 2019.

Last year, Denning and other GOP leaders used their clout to block an expansion bill. One of his concerns was that the private market might collapse if too many people left their insurance plans for Medicaid coverage.

Yet he and other Republican Senate leaders also promised a debate this year, and Denning went to work on a GOP alternative. Then, he and Kelly began talks. Their plan would give her the straightforward expansion she sought and him a program aimed at holding down private health premiums to keep consumers in the private market.

“He’s as invested in expanding Medicaid now as I am,” Kelly said in an interview.

Denning, the 63-year-old retired CEO of an eye care and optical surgery company, believes most of the 29 Republicans in the 40-member Senate would back the expansion plan, calling it “a very Republican bill.” He also said he believes passing Medicaid expansion first would help the anti-abortion measure pick up votes.

Jim Denning