The survival of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in Arkansas has been delayed for at least a few more days after the House failed again to pass a funding bill on Friday.
The bill earned only 71 votes, short of the 75 needed for a supermajority to continue accepting federal money for the key Obamacare provision, according to the Arkansas Times’s David Ramsey.
The House will vote again Tuesday. Republican leadership has routinely expressed confidence it will garner enough votes to keep the state’s unique form of Medicaid expansion, which is using Medicaid dollars to help Arkansans purchase private coverage on HealthCare.gov.
More than 80,000 people have enrolled through the so-called private option.
As TPM has reported, it’s been a slog to get the Medicaid funding approved. Amendments have been proposed and deals have been struck. The Senate has approved the measure, but the votes haven’t been there in the House yet.
