HUFFINGTON POST: Arizona will expand Medicaid to cover nearly 300,000 poor residents next year after a bipartisan coalition passed a measure backed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) through the state legislature on Thursday.
Brewer, a conservative and avowed foe of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, announced her support for the Medicaid expansion in January, but faced stiff resistance from fellow Republicans in Arizona’s House and Senate. During a marathon session that began Wednesday afternoon and stretched into the wee hours of Thursday morning before culminating in a final vote late Thursday afternoon, a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in the House and Senate to pass the Medicaid expansion…
With landmark votes today in the House and Senate, legislators have tackled the issue that is Job One every session — adoption of a responsible State budget — and enacted Arizona’s most sweeping health care legislation in decades,” Brewer said in a news release after the vote Thursday. “It will extend cost-effective care to Arizona’s working poor, using the very tax dollars our citizens already pay to the federal government.” … (more)
EDITOR: Gov. Tom Corbett: Take note.
