Lawmakers Would Have To Approve “Obamacare Medicaid Expansion” Under Bill Passed By Senate

The original proposal was estimated to cost the state more than a billion dollars a year in forgone Medicaid dollars. (Fiscal note via capitol.tn.gov)

Governor Bill Haslam will have to run it by lawmakers, if he settles on a plan to expand Medicaid in Tennessee.  That’s the requirement laid out in a bill that has now passed both chambers of the state legislature.

The bill originally would’ve altogether barred what Senator Brian Kelsey termed an “Obamacare Medicaid expansion.”  But state estimates put the cost to Tennessee in forgone federal revenue in the billions, so Kelsey’s bill was watered down; as amended, it makes Haslam seek approval from lawmakers, which the governor already said he would do anyway.

The requirement may be a moot point, if no Medicaid proposal emerges in Tennessee.  It’s been a year since Haslam first announced he’d try to negotiate a “third way” to fund coverage for thousands of uninsured Tennesseans.