Expand KanCare for Healthy Kids and Families: Close the Health Insurance Gap in Kansas

Heather Braum | Updated December 2024

Healthy Kansas kids and families are critical to our state’s future. Their health depends on regular, affordable access to quality care, including wellness visits, screenings, vaccinations, mental health resources, prescription medications, and dental checkups.

While kids already have access to the state’s KanCare program at much higher income levels, those kids’ parents do not. KanCare expansion would directly impact the health of parents, kids, and pregnant women in several ways.

Impact on Parents

Kids rely on their parents staying healthy so they can be cared for. But parents with health care concerns and lower incomes may struggle to afford and access health care to address those concerns, including for their mental health.

While parents can qualify for Medicaid, the income threshold is so low that a parent working even a minimum-wage full-time job makes too much to qualify for Medicaid in Kansas and likely makes too little to qualify for federal insurance subsidies.

These parents lack access to affordable health care options, delaying preventative care. Many often only seek care in emergencies, resulting in much higher health costs for us all. Expanding Medicaid closes this gap and helps around 11,849 parents access health care, so they can take care of their families.

Impact on Pregnant Women and Infants

Moms-to-be already qualify for Medicaid coverage during and after their pregnancy (for one full year) at much higher income levels, and their baby is also covered by Medicaid for the first year after birth.

However, moms must have health insurance to access health care long before pregnancy begins; otherwise, issues that likely will not be addressed without access to health insurance coverage could impact their future pregnancy. Unaddressed, some medical issues lead to low birth weights, pre-term births, birth and post-birth complications, mental health issues, and death. These medical issues also disproportionately impact communities of color.

Expanding KanCare would improve health care coverage for these women as they create and nurture their families. The health of moms and babies supports the health of our entire state. A state full of healthy families will ensure all Kansas communities thrive for generations.

Impact on Kids

Even though children are eligible for KanCare at much higher income levels than their parents, they still benefit from Medicaid expansion. When other states have expanded Medicaid and parents can access coverage, research shows parents are more likely to sign their kids up, too, reducing the number of uninsured kids.

Researchers have connected data from other states expanding Medicaid to estimate Kansas would see a reduction of around 300 kids entering foster care due to neglect. This is due to parents addressing health care needs (including behavioral health) that otherwise lead to a child’s interaction with the foster care system.

The Bottom Line

Research shows expanding the state’s Medicaid program will improve the health and well-being of Kansas children and families, improve pregnancy outcomes, and offer affordable health coverage options to parents, so they no longer have to choose between health care and housing or food.

Download the brief here. (Previous versions here, here, and here.)