Speaker of the House Jase Bolger watches the voting board as the Michigan House of Representatives votes on the Medicaid expansion bill Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, in the Capitol building in Lansing.LANSING, Mich. – Michigan lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a measure that would make more low-income adults eligible for Medicaid, positioning the state to become the largest controlled by Republicans to support a key component of the new federal health care law.
In a bipartisan 75-32 vote, the House approved expanding the government health insurance program to almost a half-million Michigan residents within a few years, nearly halving the state’s uninsured. An estimated 320,000 are expected to be eligible in late March if the federal government OKs the plan.
They could have been covered as early as Jan. 1. However, the Senate – where just enough Republicans in a GOP supermajority joined Democrats to pass the bill last week after months of intense debate – fell short of putting the law into effect immediately and did not revisit the issue Tuesday.
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, for whom Medicaid expansion was a major priority, will sign the measure after returning from a 10-day trade trip to Asia.
“I would have preferred to have gotten immediate effect, but what I would say is this is still a victory for Michiganders – both in terms of the people getting coverage and all Michiganders,” he told reporters.