TOPEKA, Kan. — The Republican-controlled Kansas House of Representatives voted narrowly on Monday to uphold Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill to expand Medicaid, ending a quest that came improbably close to succeeding in this deep red state despite Mr. Brownback’s unyielding opposition.
In spite of a torrent of phone calls and in-person pleas from constituents over the weekend, and last-minute lobbying by hospital leaders who said that expanding Medicaid would help save a number of rural hospitals from closing, the vote was 81 to 44, three short of the two-thirds majority needed for an override.
