Count Michigan's Gov. Rick Snyder among those handful of Republican governors who is not in a deep red state, and who have
supported establishing their own health care exchanges, using federal dollars, and
Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Snyder made an economic argument for his support.
Snyder is urging the Senate to vote [Thursday] on an appropriations bill that would allow the state to utilize a $30.7 million federal grant to set up the so-called health exchange. Continued delay would jeopardize that funding and, according to the administration, leave the state on the hook for more than $8 million in anticipated costs.
Snyder's pleas
fell on deaf ears. The state Senate refused to move an exchange forward, so the federal government will be running the exchange for Michigan. Likewise, the state House is
hostile to Snyder's push to take the Medicaid expansion money. The appropriations committee passed out a budget that does not include the Medicaid funding. Medicaid expansion isn't dead yet in Michigan, but it's going to be a tough sell for Snyder to convince Republican legislators to revive it.