State Sen. Lloyd Smucker at a town hall meeting Wednesday said he favors accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid to more low-income Pennsylvanians.
Smucker, a Republican from West Lampeter, may be the first GOP senator to publicly break with Gov. Tom Corbett over insuring 650,000 more Pennsylvanians, many in low-wage jobs.
“I think there’s a need,” said Smucker, responding to a question from a retired doctor. “I don’t know how you can turn down a program that will provide a service that is needed, that will be entirely paid for by the federal government and that will help a lot of citizens of the state.”
A Republican, Corbett in his budget address said he opposed extending Medicaid to more people, calling it “financially unsustainable for Pennsylvania taxpayers.”
Under the Affordable Care Act, states may opt out of Medicaid expansion, and to date 14 governors, including Corbett, have said their states won’t participate. Pennsylvania would forsake about $4 billion a year in federal aid.
Smucker said accepting those dollars to cover the uninsured in Pennsylvania would ease the burden on Lancaster General and other hospitals that provide millions of dollars of uncompensated care to the needy.
The federal government says it will pay 100 percent of the cost for three years, beginning in 2014, and 90 percent in future years.
While Smucker may be the first of the GOP’s 27 state senators to publicly oppose Corbett on the issue, as many as 10 to 20 others may support expansion if it comes to a vote, Peter DeCoursey, Capitolwire bureau chief, said in an interview.
“I think (Smucker) speaks for a lot of his colleagues,” but the others aren’t yet speaking out in hopes the governor changes his mind, DeCoursey said.
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