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Obamacare woos another Republican governor

by Sarah Kliff
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has suggested he’ll pursue a Medicaid expansion this fall
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has suggested he’ll pursue a Medicaid expansion this fall
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has suggested he’ll pursue a Medicaid expansion this fall
Jason Davis / Getty Images Entertainment

Tennessee could be the next Republican-run state to sign onto Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

The Tennessean reported Friday that Gov. Bill Haslam could soon send a proposal to the federal government for how his state would expand the public insurance program, much like Pennsylvania recently did. Haslam told reporters Thursday, “I think we’ll probably go to them [the Obama administration] sometime this fall with a plan ... that we think makes sense for Tennessee.”

“This would be the first time for the governor to actually submit a plan,” Tom Wilemon at the Tennessean writes. “If approved by federal officials and the state legislature, the plan would help Tennesseans caught in the coverage gap of the Affordable Care Act, which has left 162,000 Tennesseans without health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

If Haslam did move forward, he would be the 11th Republican governor to endorse this Obamacare program and join a group that includes Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and, most recently, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett

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