Governor Jan Brewer unveiled draft legislation for her Medicaid expansion plan on Tuesday. She said “There is no Plan B.”
In response, State legislators said that the “plan is dead on arrival.”
The Governor called her only plan “thoughtful.” She claimed it stimulate the Arizona economy.
The proposal would cost the state about $240 million the first year and legislators say that there is no “assurance hospital bills will stop going up if Medicaid is expanded.”
The Governor’s proposed legislation will push eligibility for the free care from 100 percent of the federal poverty level to 138 percent, which is about $26,000 a year for a family of three.
The Governor is counting on $1.6 billion in promised federal funds in the first year and $8 billion in federal funds over the next four years.
She claims that her proposal “will keep Arizona’s tax dollars at home rather than allowing them to go to Washington to be spent on who knows what.”
Brewer has structured the legislation to allow the AHCCCS director to impose an annual “assessment,” in order to avoid the constitutional provision that requires a two-thirds vote for any tax increase.
Republicans say that that gives too much power to the unelected state agency chief without legislative oversight.
On Monday a Florida Senate committee rejected Florida’s Governor Rick Scott’s Medicaid expansion proposal and last week, a Florida House committee voted to reject the Medicaid expansion. According to the New York Times, legislators said that the system was broken and that adding people to the rolls would cost taxpayers too much money in the long run. The House speaker, Will Weatherford, a Republican, said it was the wrong approach, calling it a “dangerous path.”
The Times reports “that from the start, Mr. Scott knew it would be difficult for the Florida Legislature to embrace Medicaid expansion, even for only three years, which is what he proposed.”
Much like Brewer, Scott had initially rejected Obamacare, and his acceptance of medicaid expansion did not endear him to the florida Legislature.
Only six lawmakers stood with Brewer at her news conference yesterday: Boyer, Brophy McGee, Carter, Coleman, Steve Pierce and Worsley.