Michigan Senate OKs Medicaid expansion

By a 20-18 vote, the Michigan State Senate voted in favor of a bill Tuesday night to expand Medicaid, the nationwide health program for the poor, as prescribed under the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. The expansion would cover families and individuals whose income is below 133 percent of the poverty line -- $26,000 for a family of three or $15,500 for a single person.

Eight Republicans joined all 12 Democrats in the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, to give the bill the 20 votes it needed to pass, the Detroit Free Press reported. 

The measure would infuse the state budget with billions of dollars in federal funding for the expansion. An additional 325,000 people would be covered in fiscal 2013-14 with $1.7 billion in federal funds, increasing to more than 400,000 people the following fiscal year, according to a Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency analysis.

The bill fell one vote shy of approval on an initial vote, but it passed in a second vote after senators adopted an amendment limiting the amount charged to program recipients. Republican Senator Roger Kahn called it "a bipartisan bill that will reform the cost of medicine throughout the state and become the model in the country."

Because it differs from the version approved by the House in June, the Senate bill will return to the House for a final vote before it could go to the governor to be signed into law.

Michicag Gov. Rick Snyder broke with several other Republican governors this year to support Medicaid expansion through Obamacare. Snyder has said the program would save taxpayers and businesses money while improving the quality of life for people not currently covered.

Medicaid expansion is one of the health care law's major provisions. But a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year allows states to opt out. As of Aug. 1, 23 states and the District of Columbia had accepted the expansion, while 21 states had turned it down, according to the consulting group Avalere Health.

Al Jazeera and Reuters