Interview of Susan Concannon by Robert St. Peter, June 4, 2026

In this interview Susan Concannon discussed managed care, who is on Medicaid, the eligibility requirements for the program, and who would be impacted by the expansion of Medicaid. She offers ideas about why expansioon was not implemented in Kansas passed -- the woodwork effect, the transition to managed care. Susan was always a proponent of Medicaid expansion. "I wasn’t really treated as an outcast, but I knew that I differed from many of my Republican colleagues on committee." She was removed from her position as Vice Chair of the Kansas House Health Committee as a punishment for her votes supporting Medicaid expansion. Concannon noted that the reasons not to vote for expansion changed over time: fiscal note too large; Congress will repeal; waiting list for the I/DD PD was too long; Catholic Church's position on abortion. During ehe interview she also explored her views on the national health rankings that have declined for Kansas. She observed that Kansas' decline was "because of the cuts that we made in social services and with not expanding Medicaid. Access to care is such an issue ...I would guess that the reason we popped back up a little bit is the work that we’ve done in the mental health arena and then the new hospital designation." A printable copy of the transcript of this interview can be downloaded from https://ksoralhistory.org. Susan Concannon and her physician husband were looking for a rural community in which to live to repay their medical school loan when they discovered Beloit had everything her husband needed to practice internal medicine. They have now lived there for the last 40 years. Concannon describes herself as non political but she married into a political family. She got involved in Beloit with the Medical Society Alliance that was advocating for malpractice reform at the legislature. That experience piqued her interest in public policy. When the 2012 legislative redistricting created a vacancy in the House District 107, she immediately filed and ran unopposed in her first state election. Concannon served twelve years in the Kansas House between January 2013 and January 2025. Prior to that she served one 4 year term on the Beloit city council. In addition to community volunteer work, she worked as a substitute teacher for 10 years in the Beloit schools, USD 273. This interview was conducted by the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. (KOHP), a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) that records, transcribes, and makes available to the public, oral histories of various aspects of life in Kansas. KOHP is supported by grants and donations, including grants from Humanities Kansas, Evergy, and ITC Great Plains. KOHP does not charge for non-commercial use of the oral histories it collects. Suggested citation: Concannon, Susan (June 4, 2026) interviewed by Robert St. Peter. Video file of an oral history interview conducted for the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. Retrieved from    • Interview of Susan Concannon by Robert St....  . ***** The appearance of any advertisement on this channel does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service nor does it reflect any official position taken by the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. Except where otherwise noted, The Kansas Oral History Collection © 2021 by Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. The recording, transcript, summary, and biographical sketch associated with this video may be used in accordance with this license. If you have questions about licensing the use of this material, contact us using our online form at https://ksoralhistory.org/contact/.