From bills introduced in North Carolina and Kansas, to another dying on the Wyoming House floor, here are five recent updates on state Medicaid expansion efforts:
1. A new Medicaid expansion bill has been filed in the North Carolina House of Representatives, Spectrum News reported Feb. 9. The bill would extend coverage to an estimated 600,000 residents. The proposal would give Medicaid coverage to people making 138 percent of the federal poverty level. An expansion bill passed the Senate last year but died in the House.
2. A Medicaid expansion bill died on the Wyoming House floor without a reading, Wyoming Public Radio reported Feb. 9. In 2021, a Medicaid expansion bill passed in the House but failed in the Senate. An attempt to put expansion in the state's 2022 budget also failed.
3. A Medicaid expansion bill was introduced in the Kansas Legislature. Gov. Laura Kelly's office said that if the state were to expand Medicaid, it would receive an additional $370 million in federal funding over the next two years. This would cover expansion costs for up to eight years. Previous efforts to expand Medicaid in Kansas failed in the Legislature in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
4. South Dakota voters passed a Medicaid expansion measure in November, but now state lawmakers are proposing a ballot issue that would add work requirements to that expansion. If lawmakers' proposed resolution passes, voters would be asked in the 2024 election whether to impose the requirement on any eligible person who is "able-bodied."
5. Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns said the state will not consider a full expansion of Medicaid anytime soon and will instead focus on the limited work-requirement-based expansion set to begin July 1.