Michigan Senate approves ObamaCare Medicaid expansion

State senators in Michigan signed on to ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion Tuesday evening, making it likely that at least 25 states will participate in the expansion.

The Michigan Senate approved the Medicaid expansion in a 20-18 vote, according to media reports. 

The Senate’s approval comes after a long period of uncertainty in Michigan, where months of intense political jockeying followed a tie vote the first time the expansion came up for a vote.

{mosads}Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is among the handful of Republican governors to embrace the Medicaid expansion — and a smaller handful who have been able to convince Republicans in their state legislatures to go along.

The Michigan House still has to vote on the Senate bill, but the Senate-passed measure is similar to a bill the House passed in June. Assuming the House signs off, Michigan would be the 25th state to accept the Medicaid expansion.

The expansion would likely cover more than 300,000 Michiganders.

The state expansion was initially expected to cover roughly 15 million people, providing about half of the healthcare law’s total coverage expansion.

But the Supreme Court’s landmark healthcare decision made the expansion optional for states. GOP governors have generally been more open to the expansion than to implementing their own insurance exchanges — the other half of the law’s coverage expansion.

Democratic governors have signed on to the Medicaid expansion and have been more willing to at least help set up their exchanges.