All Republican Candidates for Reno County seats in the Kansas Legislature opposed the expansion of Medicaid.
The Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative forum Thursday evening at the Stringer Fine Arts Center on the Hutchinson Community College Campus and asked each candidate a series of questions on a wide range of topics.
Currently, Kansas is one of 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid. Governor Laura Kelly unveiled her fiscal budget in Jan. 2024 which included the expansion of the program but failed to pass it through the legislature during the 2024 legislative session.
KS House District 114
Candidate for the 114th district of the Kansas House Steve Schweizer said he didn’t support the expansion because the policy wouldn’t benefit his district and could potentially harm rural healthcare.
“I would not be in favor of that,” Schweizer said. “The rural areas would gain the least benefit from that program, and the biggest reason for that is government-run healthcare. We cannot have government involved in healthcare. I would not be in favor of Medicaid expansion.”
Schweizer’s opponent, Kevin Schwertfeger, agreed with Schweizer and said he opposed the Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2010.
“I’m not going to vote to increase Kansas to take on KanCare,” Schwertfeger said. “It leads to socialized medicine. I see the Constitution in an originalist form, and I don’t think we had that quite correct when we passed the Obamacare business. It’s not the road we need to go down. We’re not socialists, we are a republic.”
KS House District 102
Tyson Thrall, one of two Republican candidates running to challenge the westernmost Democrat in the legislature, Rep. Jason Probst, said he opposed expansion due to the failure of the program in other states. He added that even if the federal government would cover the vast majority of the costs, Kansas taxpayers would still foot the bill.
“Borrowing a quote from Ben Shapiro, ‘facts don’t care about your feelings,’” Thrall said. “Where do the feds get their dollars from? It’s just higher in taxes. I would say we could look back to Indiana, Oklahoma, these places that did that and we could say no.”
Kyler Sweely, Thrall’s opponent, also opposed the program. He said many Democrats in the legislature use expansion as a political “hit job” and have had little true debate on the topic.
“It’s one of the biggest topics,” Sweely said. “I would have voted against Medicaid expansion. It’s always been a floor amendment. It’s pretty much a political hit job. There are a lot of flaws with the system. A lot of the bills they brought up have no work requirements. It’s evident a lot of states have completely gone over their limits. Logically, financially, it’s not responsible and it wouldn’t work at all.”
KS Senate District 34
Candidate Bob Fee said he opposed Medicaid expansion because it put other states in financial hardship after expansion.
“One of the first states to do that was Indiana, and at the beginning of their legislative session, they were nearly a billion dollars underwater for what they owed,” Fee said. “ The costs were way higher than projected. You can’t continue to tax and tax and tax and provide entitlements. It’s started to be proven over time.”
Rep. Michael Murphy, current representative for the 114th district and candidate for senate, also opposed expansion.
“When we look at the Affordable Care Act, we were promised all sorts of things,” Murphy said. “It’s a lot of feel-good, but in reality, they don’t work. The Medicaid expansion was all part of that deal. There are all sorts of problems. The thought we would even think about it is crazy.”