A Kansas House committee is working on a proposal to expand the state’s Medicaid program to capture additional federal dollars promised by the federal health care overhaul.

The Vision 2020 Committee heard testimony Monday in favor of expanding Medicaid from the Kansas Hospital Association and the state’s largest health system, Via Christi.

Committee Chairman and Lawrence Republican Tom Sloan said a bill should be drafted within a few weeks.

The state’s $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program provides health coverage for the needy and disabled, but it doesn’t cover childless adults without disabilities.

The 2010 federal health care law promises to pay all of the cost of expanding Medicaid through 2016 and at least 90 percent after that. But many Kansas Republicans remain skeptical the federal government will keep its promises.