The Virginia state Senate on Wednesday approved an expansion of Medicaid, likely ensuring the state becomes the 33rd to expand the healthcare program under Obamacare.
The state budget, which includes the long-battled expansion, now goes back to the state House of Delegates, which has already passed a version of the expansion. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to sign it as he has pushed for the move to extend coverage to 400,000 state residents.
The provision, created under Obamacare, will allow people who make less than roughly $16,643 a year to enroll in Medicaid, a health insurance program the government pays for. Residents will be allowed to start signing up for the program beginning Jan. 1.
The state legislature hammered out its plan during a special session because it had not approved its budget. It will need to do so by July 1 or face a government shutdown. Lawmakers arrived at a compromise on Medicaid and on other parts of spending partly by setting a tax on hospitals.
The Medicaid compromise includes establishing work requirements and mandating some beneficiaries contribute to premiums.
The House passed its version of the expansion bill in April.
Under Obamacare, the federal government paid for all of the cost of Medicaid expansion in states beginning in 2014 and will reduce its support to 90 percent of costs by 2020. In some states, that will mean billions of dollars in additional spending. Several other states have imposed taxes on hospitals or health insurers to fund the increase.
All states were slated to expand Medicaid under the way Obamacare was originally written, but a Supreme Court decision made the provision optional for states. Other than Virginia, the District of Columbia and 32 other states have moved to expand Medicaid.
[Related: Utah to vote on Medicaid expansion, medical marijuana this fall]
