A state Senate work group has finished its own plan to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of Michiganders under the federal health care law.
As The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher reports, it doesn’t look drastically different than a version that recently cleared the state House.
The work group has been meeting for weeks since Senate Republicans refused to vote on the House version of the bill before leaving on their summer recess. It came out with a plan that seeks to create more incentives for healthy lifestyles and make the Medicaid program more transparent.
But Scott Hagerstrom of the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity says it would still be an unprecedented expansion of government in Michigan.
“It’s just more of the same,” he says. “More studies, more talk. Very disappointed, again, that Lansing Republicans are in a race to implement Obamacare in Michigan.”
Officials in Governor Rick Snyder’s administration are already embracing the revised plan. They’re urging lawmakers to act fast on the bill so the state can start adding people to the Medicaid rolls in January.
