Nixon is expected in Independence this afternoon to make the Medicaid expansion argument. He’s contended, as have other governors, that the state-based cost of expansion will be paid for by taxes from jobs created to treat new Medicaid patients.

Still, few signs exist that Republicans in Missouri’s legislature are changing their views because of Medicaid decisions in other states.

“We will not follow the lead of out-of-touch bureaucrats whose reckless spending has pushed our nation to the brink of financial disaster,” Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones said last week.

John Hancock, a former Missouri GOP chairman and now a political consultant, said few legislators will care what other states decide to do about Medicaid.

“Every state is unique and has unique dynamics and unique relationships with the hospital community,” he said.

But Alan Rosenthal of Rutgers University, an expert on state legislatures, said GOP lawmakers in Missouri — facing pressure from rural hospitals and other providers who support expanding Medicaid — may find the Snyder and Kasich decisions helpful.

“The main effect politically is that other governors and legislators who are Republican get some cover,” he said in an email.

While other governors have announced their positions on the issue this week, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s views remain unannounced.

Contacted this week, Brownback’s office did not provide a timetable for his decision.

Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka, said he would be surprised if the GOP governor follows Snyder and recommends expanding the program.

“If Brownback does go with these other governors, he would be bucking … the clear trend of his administration over the past couple of years,” he said.

Lobbyists for Medicaid expansion in Kansas have maintained a lower profile than in Missouri, where an organized political push for the program has been under way for weeks. But some health-care providers hope Brownback agrees with governors like Snyder.

Expanding Medicaid, they argue, could provide additional money for the state’s transition to KanCare, the privately managed Medicaid system.

“Governors in both parties are now really looking into this and seeing there is some benefit for their states,” said Cindy Samuelson of the Kansas Hospital Association.

Nicole Kaeding, state policy manager for the conservative Americans for Prosperity, expects an opposite outcome.

“Expanding Medicaid is exactly the wrong decision for a state to make,” she said, “including Kansas and Missouri.”