Making a final push for Medicaid expansion this session, Gov. Laura Kelly visited the Shawnee County Adult Detention Center on Tuesday.

She met with Brian Cole, director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections, Deputy Director Tim Phelps and others to explore how expansion could benefit local jails.

Medicaid expansion “would mean a lot,” Cole said, noting that one of the biggest challenges correctional facilities face is that many inmates don’t have adequate health care before or after their sentences.

Expansion would break the “cycle of incarceration” and lead to a reduction in recidivism, Cole said, “because healthy people don’t commit crimes. I’m not saying they don’t, but they don’t commit as much.”

A third of those booked in the Shawnee County jail have serious and persistent mental illnesses, Cole said, and he estimated that as many as 80% have some degree of mental health challenges. In addition, he said 50% also deal with physical health issues.

Recently released former inmates struggle to find full-time work and end up in emergency rooms to meet their medical needs, said Cathy Walker, director of the Valeo Recovery Center, which works with the jail to provide medical services.

Many groups give “lip service” to addressing those problems, Phelps said, but Shawnee County is building a new correctional facility to actually help those inmates.

Shawnee County Commissioner Kevin Cook said Medicaid expansion would help offset some of those costs.

“We know that it’s expensive,” he said. “But when we look at the cost of housing a mentally ill inmate at in excess of $300 a day, as to a non-mentally ill inmate at $100 or thereabouts a day, it makes sense for us to address the issue of, ‘How can we restore somebody?’”

Cook said the benefits of Medicaid expansion are interconnected, suggesting it would help grow his county’s workforce and help lower local property taxes. Chris Courtwright, former principal economist for the Legislature, echoed those comments and said the state’s decision to not expand Medicaid is a factor in recent property tax increases.

Tuesday’s stop was the latest on Kelly’s renewed “Healthy Workers, Healthy Economy” tour. She relaunched her Medicaid expansion tour last week with a tour of HaysMed.

The Legislature held hearings on Kelly’s latest proposal in March, but the House Committee on Health and Human Services voted the bill down.

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, made a motion on April 5 — the final day of the regular session — to pull her chamber’s version, Senate Bill 355, out of committee.

The motion would need 24 votes to succeed, and a potential attempt to move the bill above the line would need 27 votes. The Senate can vote on the motion when the veto session opens April 25.

“Kansans across the state have been loud and clear this session: they want Medicaid expansion,” Sykes said in a statement. “With this motion, we’re answering their call for action on Medicaid expansion by supporting a full debate and vote on the Senate floor.”

Kelly called on those at the roundtable to call on their local lawmakers to support Sykes’ motion.

“We have a real opportunity here that we haven’t had since the last discussion about Medicaid in the Legislature, which was four years ago,” she said.

Brett Stover is a Statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter @BrettStoverKS.

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