By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Daily Star
Some Republican lawmakers are suing to block the state from assessing a levy on hospitals like Tucson Medical Center to pay for expansion of the state Medicaid program.
The Ducey administration is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to preserve the levy that pays for an expanded Medicaid program — assuming that expansion isn’t undermined by Congress killing the program.
In legal papers filed Friday, attorney Doug Northup wants the justices to reject arguments by Republican lawmakers that money being paid by hospitals to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System is a tax. Instead, he contends, it is simply an “assessment” on hospitals.
That difference is more than wordplay.
The Arizona Constitution says taxes can be enacted only with a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate. The 2013 legislation to both restore Medicaid coverage to some who had been cut, as well as to expand who is eligible, did not get that margin.
