Republican lawmakers blocked Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s (R) plan to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
The Nashville Post reported on Wednesday that the Senate’s Health and Welfare Committee voted seven to four to stop the bill from advancing to the Senate floor. Seven of the committee’s 10 Republicans voted against it. The lone Democrat and three GOP legislators voted for it.
Haslam announced in December that he reached an agreement with the Obama administration on Medicaid expansion, but the plan needed to clear the state legislature. About 160,000 low-income Tennesseans would be covered by the program.
The governor’s plan would have given Medicaid enrollees two options: They could have either participated in a slightly modified version of traditional Medicaid or received a voucher to pay for private health insurance through their employer.
(h/t Greg Sargent)
