Democrats attempted to pass Medicaid expansion on the floor of the Senate in a legislative maneuver that was quickly shot down by their Republican counterparts Friday.
The bill they hoped to amend, Senate Bill 440, was originally intended to update and modernize laws around the state Department of Public Health. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Marietta Republican who introduced the bill, described it as “another step in rolling back the red tape.”
But a pair of amendments, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones of Augusta and Minority Whip Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain, incorporated language from two previously introduced bills to allow the state to fully expand its Medicaid program. Georgia is one of only 10 states that has not fully expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
One of the amendments included in the proposal was modeled after the Arkansas model that had previously intrigued state GOP leaders like House Speaker Jon Burns.
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