Economic Costs to Kansas Due to State’s Failure to Expand Medicaid

Abstract

Kansas is one of only 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, despite the federal government covering more than the cost with additional Biden administration incentives. This report compares Kansas to states that expanded Medicaid in 2014 as well as states that did not expand Medicaid as of 2019. Compared to other non-expansion states, Kansas Medicaid expenditures are increasing post-2014, private insurance companies are increasing expenditures, families are paying higher health insurance premiums, and hospitals and providers are administering more health care services and prescriptions. Kansas residents are paying for healthcare differently than consumers in other states as a result of their state government’s decision to not expand Medicaid eligibility under the ACA. 1) Kansas taxpayers are paying federal taxes which helps fund other states’ expansions, allowing those states to draw down a higher percentage of federal reimbursement; 2) their state taxes are funding the increased state spending on its privatized Medicaid program, or “managed care”, despite a stated goal of reducing healthcare costs; 3) an increasingly higher proportion of their local mill levies are being used by counties to support their local or regional hospital districts; and 4) privately insured Kansans are paying higher health insurance premiums to cover providers’ increasing service delivery volumes.