Kansas shouldn't let fear of change prevent it from overhauling Medicaid, an influential legislator said Tuesday, as Gov. Sam Brownback's administration stuck with plans to let private companies manage the $2.9 billion program starting next year

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback won't delay an overhaul of Medicaid in Kansas, officials said Thursday, despite bipartisan concern among legislators that his administration is moving too quickly to turn the entire program over to private health insurance companies.

A Democratic legislator serving on a commission studying Kansas' pension system questioned Wednesday whether Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has been improperly involved in its deliberations just before it recommended starting a 401(k)-style retirement plan for new public employees.

Gov. Sam Brownback's administration is delaying the release of its plan for overhauling the Medicaid program in Kansas until next month so that it has the most current state revenue projections possible, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Planned Parenthood may return to federal court to force Kansas to immediately release federal funds for the group's non-abortion services because it doesn't believe the state is complying with a judge's order, the leader of its regional chapter said Thursday.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has brought the state into another lawsuit against the federal health care overhaul enacted last year, and he said Tuesday that the move will help states flesh out arguments they expect to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Retiree and public employee groups in Kansas are contemplating a lawsuit against a law enacted this year that would force teachers and government workers to make concessions on their pensions to address the state retirement system's long-term funding problems.

Kansas was close Tuesday to joining other states in enacting a law designed to block a mandate in last year's federal health care overhaul requiring most Americans to buy health insurance.