Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said the Kansas Legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid health coverage to the working poor was the biggest disappointment of her eight-year tenure. Kelly spoke during an Oct. 29, 2026, economic conference at the University of Kansas, where she discussed her experiences as governor and the challenges of state policy.
Kelly repeatedly urged the Republican-led Legislature to broaden eligibility standards to include as many as 150,000 working adults who earned too much for traditional government-sponsored Medicaid and too little to qualify for private-insurance subsidies. Political opponents of expansion argued extending benefits to adults 19 to 64 years of age making no more than $21,600 per year was too costly for the state or clashed with philosophical objections to deepening entitlement programs.
“I think it’s the dumbest thing Kansas has ever done,” Kelly said. “Not only has it hurt the people who would have been eligible for insurance under the Medicaid program, but just financially we have left over $8 billion in Washington, D.C. We’ve seen it play out in the closure of some of our rural hospitals and certainly with so many of them today on the brink of it.”
Kansas stands among 10 states that turned aside expansion options within the federal Affordable Care Act. All states bordering Kansas embraced Medicaid expansion to improve health care service options. Kelly said her administration could have hammered out a Medicaid expansion deal with the Kansas Senate led by President Ty Masterson, the Andover Republican running for governor. The problem, she said, was opposition by Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican campaigning to become the state’s insurance commissioner.
“There’s one person in the state really responsible for the fact that Medicaid has not been expanded and that would be the current speaker of the House,” she said. “We got so close so many times, but he was absolutely determined not to allow Medicaid expansion to come to a vote because he knew it would pass. For his own reasons, he did not want Medicaid expansion. That’s why we don’t have it.”
In response, Hawkins said the governor was entitled to her opinion. “Calling people names and assigning blame doesn’t change the facts,” he said. “Medicaid expansion would create significant new obligations for Kansas taxpayers based on hopes and dreams that the federal government will maintain their share of the burden. I’ve never believed that adding more people to a government program is automatically the same thing as improving access to health care.”
Kelly spoke for an hour with participants in the 2026 Kansas Economic Policy Conference about policy issues ranging from water resources to data centers, economic development and property taxes. She expressed gratitude for her sustained popularity among Kansans as well as cherished and disliked aspects of being governor. She was frustrated by time spent on the campaign trail in 2022 as she sought reelection. Interacting with voters was never an issue, she said, but road trips drew her away from day-to-day responsibilities of the job.
On the upside, Kelly welcomed opportunities to delve into details of the state budget. “The budget is where everything happens,” Kelly said. “I love numbers. I really love math.”
Data centers and AI Kelly said she followed ongoing debate in Kansas about proposals to build data centers and was comfortable decisions on those projects remained with municipal government officials. She said the Kansas Department of Commerce shared information on benefits and drawbacks of data centers, but the state wouldn’t be offering supplemental incentives to draw developers to Kansas. A 2025 state law granted a 20-year state and local sales tax exemption for data centers.
