More states embracing Medicaid expansion.

Bloomberg News (2/3) reports that Republican-led states that previously rejected Medicaid expansion under the ACA “have found a way to embrace it, under pressure from businesses to tap the flood of federal dollars it brings.” Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R), for instance, called lawmakers into a special session this week to consider a plan to expand Medicaid. According to Bloomberg, “Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming are considering it,” and all “are adding free-market, anti-welfare embellishments that backers say distance the proposals from a federal program they once spurned.”

Haslam urges lawmakers to pass Medicaid expansion plan. The Tennessean (2/3) reports that Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) “asked state lawmakers Monday night to look beyond politics and focus on the policy of Insure Tennessee, his plan to provide an estimated 280,000 low-income Tennesseans with federally funded health care.” The governor said in a speech, “We have the chance to make a difference — a difference that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans and at the same time to begin attacking the out of control health care costs that have driven our state and our country for too long.” The Tennessean notes the proposal creates two programs. The Volunteer Plan offers vouchers to help those eligible pay for health insurance offered by their employer. The Health Incentives Plan would create a health savings account for people to spend on premiums and co-pays.

The Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel (2/2) reports that Haslam insisted that his plan is “not Obamacare” and urged lawmakers to look beyond the “easy political argument.” The Legislature will begin committee review of Insure Tennessee on Tuesday.

Wyoming Senate gives initial approval to Medicaid expansion bill. The AP (2/3) reports that the Wyoming Senate on Monday “gave initial approval to a bill to expand the federal Medicaid program, but only after amending it to require that new participants must work up to 32 hours a week if they can.” Supporters of the bill say the work requirement could doom Medicaid expansion because Federal officials are unlikely to approve it. Nevertheless, the AP says Monday’s approval in the Senate “signals a new high-water mark for Medicaid expansion in the Wyoming Legislature, which has shot down expansion proposals in the past two sessions.”

Article from “AMA Morning Rounds,” 2-3-15.