Hours after Missouri became the 38th state to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income residents, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly urged lawmakers in her state to do the state thing.“Last night, Missourians voted to join our neighbors in Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma to expand Medicaid coverage,” Kelly said. “Every single Kansas vote must ask themselves why, year after year, Republican leadership in the legislature has blocked expansion.”In Missouri, support for the constitutional amendment means that as many as 250,000 more adults could choose to be covered by government health insurance beginning in July 2021, according to estimates from the state auditor.The vote on health care, which was paired with Missouri’s primary elections, came as confirmed coronavirus cases have been rising in the state.Concerns about the virus appear to have driven a record number of people to cast absentee ballots in Missouri’s largest jurisdiction of St. Louis County, said county election director Eric Fey. Election officials said coronavirus concerns also led to a somewhat larger number of cancellations and no-shows among poll workers in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas, though substitutes were dispatched to fill the gaps. Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature has repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion proposals over the past decade, prompting supporters to turn to the initiative process. In Kansas, Kelly said Republicans “have rejected 13,000 new jobs that we could bring to Kansas” with Medicaid expansion.“Their obstruction has left 150,000 Kansans without access to health care during a global health crisis,” Kelly said. “They have forfeited $4 billion Kansas taxpayer dollars. Republican leadership in the legislature must stop playing politics with Kansans’ lives and support Medicaid expansion.”Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah have all expanded Medicaid through ballot questions following inaction by state lawmakers, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Oklahoma became the 37th state to expand eligibility for Medicaid under the federal law last month.