The contentious nature of issues touching upon Kansas’ Medicaid program surfaced Tuesday in a legislative committee during a verbal jousting match between the Republican chairwoman and Democratic members on the panel.
Fireworks first erupted between Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Shawnee Republican chairing the House-Senate committee, and Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat often at odds with the executive branch’s decisions about Medicaid. In Kansas, Medicaid was privatized and renamed KanCare by the administration of Gov. Sam Brownback.