LITTLE ROCK — Lawmakers have voted to keep Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion for another year as the state's governor prepares to seek federal approval to add new limits to the program.
The House voted 77-13 Thursday and approved the state's Medicaid budget, which includes the hybrid expansion. The proposal now heads to Gov. Asa Hutchinson's desk.
More than 300,000 people are on the program, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents.
The program has sharply divided Republicans, who control both chambers of the Legislature, since it was crafted in 2013 as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law. Hutchinson earlier this month said he'd ask for approval to move 60,000 people off the expansion program and to impose work requirements.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
