By Hank Stephenson | Arizona Capitol Times
Unable or unwilling to take on Medicaid expansion at the Capitol, House speaker Andy Tobin wants to ask voters in the state whether they want to expand Medicaid coverage. He is working on a resolution to send the question to the ballot in a special election this year.
Tobin’s proposed constitutional amendment would ask voters whether to expand the AHCCCS system to cover people at 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Tobin said the resolution is the best option because he believes any provider assessment – or self-imposed tax on hospitals to pay the state’s portion for expanded Medicaid coverage – would need a two-thirds vote from both chambers of the Legislature under the voter approved Proposition 108.
Governor Jan Brewer has repeatedly said the Legislature should deal with the issue itself and that she will fight against any attempt to send the Medicaid expansion to the ballot. Tobin offered his proposal as the Senate began considering its own budget proposal. That plan would seek a federal waiver to continue the freeze on the Medicaid population. If the waiver were rejected, the plan calls for the Prop 204 population to be funded entirely by the state at a cost of $808 million, including baseline funding, over three years.
Tobin said he hasn’t received any indication from the governor whether she would go along with a plan to put Medicaid expansion to the voters.
