By JIM MCLEAN

The chairman of a Kansas House committee holding three Medicaid expansion bills says he has no current plans to have hearings on any of the proposals.

“At this time I haven’t scheduled anything,” said Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican and chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee. “Will I schedule something? I can’t say right now. But right now there is nothing scheduled.”

Hawkins is in his first year as chairman of the health committee. His predecessor, former Rep. David Crum, an Augusta Republican, refused to hold hearings on expansion proposals in 2013 and 2014. Expansion advocates, most notably the Kansas Hospital Association, hoped that Hawkins would allow hearings even though he opposes both the Affordable Care Act and the Medicaid expansion it authorizes and helps to fund.

Rep. Don Hill, a Republican from Emporia, is the sponsor of one of the Medicaid expansion bills. It would repeal language added to a budget bill in 2013 that prohibits Gov. Sam Brownback from crafting an expansion plan and negotiating its approval with federal officials.

Hill, a retired pharmacist, has been working behind the scenes for several weeks to convince Brownback and Republican legislative leaders to consider a Kansas version of Medicaid expansion plans being pursued by Republican governors in Indiana, Tennessee, Wyoming and several other conservative-leaning states. Those plans use federal Medicaid funds to help purchase private coverage for low-income adults. Many also require recipients to share in their health care costs in ways that traditional Medicaid doesn’t.

Hill said discussions with Brownback and members of his staff are continuing. But he said his most recent conversation with Hawkins wasn’t promising.

“The indication at this point is that Chairman Hawkins is not inclined to hold hearings,” Hill said.

Asked why he opposed expansion, Hawkins said: “I’m really not for government-sponsored health care.”

He said the cost of expansion concerns him even though the Affordable Care Act commits the federal government to pay 100 percent of the costs through 2017 and not less than 90 percent thereafter.

A study commissioned by the Kansas Hospital Association estimated expansion would cost the state anadditional $312 million through 2020. But the same study said that savings and tax revenues resulting from expansion would more than offset that cost.

In addition, hospital officials, who need Medicaid expansion to offset reductions in Medicare reimbursements, have said they’re willing to discuss increasing a state assessment on their revenues to help pay for it.

Beyond the issue of cost, Hawkins, like other conservatives, said he is opposed to providing taxpayer-funded coverage to non-disabled adults even if they can’t afford private insurance.

“I always tried to find a job that had health care,” he said when asked what poor Kansans needing coverage should do. “I’ve always worked, and I’ve always had a job that paid for health care or paid a portion of it.”

Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program, KanCare, covers about 425,000 children and low-income, disabled and elderly adults. But that number includes relatively few able-bodied adults.

Adults with dependent children can participate in KanCare, but only if they have incomes below 33 percent of the federal poverty level, $7,770 annually for a family of four. Adults without children aren’t eligible for coverage no matter how poor they are.

Expansion would make all Kansans with incomes up to 138 percent of poverty eligible for KanCare. The eligibility cap would be set at annual income of $16,105 for an individual and $32,913 for a family of four.

Without hearings and a vote in the health committee, it will be difficult for expansion advocates to get a bill to the House floor for a vote. But if that were to happen, Hill said, he believes an expansion bill could pass.

“It very well might be a close vote,” Hill said. “But I think there is a lot of bipartisan support for Medicaid expansion in the Legislature and in the House in particular.”

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

HUTCHINSON – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 7:30 p.m. on Sunday in Reno County

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Ford Explorer driven by Tawnya Guthrie, 29, Buhler, was eastbound on 95th. The vehicle struck a patch of ice, slid through the intersection coming to rest in the ditch east of Medora Road.

Guthrie was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.

The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.

STEPHEN BRAUN, Associated Press
KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is warning states that the possible shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security would harm the nation’s ability to counter the extremist appeal of the Islamic State group within the U.S. and help communities struggling with winter snowstorms.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says if Congress fails to agree to a new budget for his department by the end of Friday, it would lead to staff furloughs that could harm the U.S. response to terrorist threats and two months of devastating snowfall.

Congress was returning to work on Monday, just days before funding for DHS’ $40 billion budget ends. Lawmakers have until the end of the week to approve the budget and avoid shutting down the department, but no clear solution is in sight.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Volunteers have trapped more than 40 feral cats in Wichita to help control future populations in the south Kansas community.

The Wichita Eagle  reports the animals were recently spayed, neutered and then released back into a Wichita neighborhood.

The effort by the Friends of Felines coincides with the Humane Society of the United States’ World Spay Day on Tuesday.

The Friends of Felines received a $5,000 grant from for the project from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The grant covers the expenses for 100 cats.

Sue Schamp of the Friends of Felines estimates there may be as many as 100,000 feral cats in the Wichita area.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting at a man on a highway south of Lawrence after plotting with the victim’s ex-girlfriend.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 25-year-old Edward “E.J.” Parker was sentenced Friday in Douglas County after pleading no contest in January to attempted second-degree murder. He initially was charged with attempted first-degree murder.

The victim, 24-year-old Skylar Workman, survived after being shot in May on U.S. 59. Workman’s ex-girlfriend, Brittany Nicole Smith, was sentenced earlier to more than eight years in prison for arranging the shooting.

As part of their sentences, Smith and Parker are ordered to pay Workman more than $123,000 in restitution for his medical bills.

NICHOLAS CLAYTON, Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas lawmakers want to boost their campaign contribution limits to keep pace with a boom in outside election ads.

The House Elections Committee unanimously endorsed a bill Wednesday that would at least double contribution limits to campaigns for state offices. Lawmakers from both major parties said the move is necessary after an election cycle in which outside groups vastly outspent official campaigns.

Democratic Rep. Tom Sawyer of Wichita said both sides are scared of the rising influence of special interest groups that he said now have the power to swing elections with their ad spending.

The boom in outside money followed a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed for unlimited campaign spending by special interests, some of which are not required to disclose their donors.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — In the four decades since Oscar recipient William Inge’s death, the statuette that symbolizes his success has resided in the building that houses the University of Kansas’ theater program.

Inge received this Oscar in 1961 for best original screenplay for “Splendor in the Grass,” a story of sexual repression. The Lawrence Journal-World  reports that Inge was 60 years old in 1973 when he committed suicide after a decades-long struggle with depression.

His Oscar went to live at his alma mater, where it is brought out several times a year.

Besides serving as managing director and budget officer of theater at the university, Kathy Pryor also serves as caretaker of sorts for the Oscar. She calls it “priceless” and says it “serves as an inspiration” to aspiring thespians.