BOSTON (AP) — Companies that insure Medicaid patients in Massachusetts are pressing for an increase in the payments they receive from the state for serving low-income residents.

The health insurers say $140 million in losses since the start of the year are the result of an expensive new hepatitis C drug and a surge of nearly 190,000 new members, many of them with major health problems, assigned to the companies by MassHealth, the state Medicaid program.