Many Arizonans recognize the need to provide healthcare for families living at or below the poverty rate, but disagree with Brewer on how to pay for that coverage. So, with freshman representative Ethan Orr covering her flank, Governor Jan Brewer conducted a perfectly orchestrated rally at the Tucson Medical Center on Wednesday to sell them on her plan.
The Governor, who last week staged a similar rally in front of the Capitol, was once again surrounded by hospital officials who stand to make considerable money off of her Medicaid expansion plan.
The Governor has enlisted hospital executives, business leaders who would rather have the government pick up the cost of healthcare for their working-poor employees, and the ill and other residents who may or may not benefit from the expansion plan to attend her “pep rallies.”
Representative Orr, who first said he would oppose expansion if it included money for abortion services, is now fully supporting the plan even though it must, in accordance with court rulings, pay for those services. He was grinning from ear to ear as he proudly stood next to the Governor while she told the crowd, that without her plan Arizona would miss out on millions of dollars in federal matching funds.
Few believe that those funds will continue to flow into the state after the state has agreed to expansion. They fear, that like other federal programs, the State will agree to implement Brewer’s plan only to be told in three years that they alone must fund their expansion program.
Speaker of the House Andy Tobin has proposed an alternative plan that would sunset the program after three years in case the federal dollars dry up. He has proposed that the plan go to the voters in a referendum. Brewer opposes a vote by taxpayers, who she believes will reject expansion.
“Regardless of whether or not you support Medicaid, I believe the voters of Arizona deserve a genuine policy discussion on the floor of the House,” Orr wrote in a email to the Arizona Daily Independent. However, like Brewer Orr, opposes a vote by those Arizona voters.