If a vote on Medicaid expansion comes down to a tie in the state Senate, Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley says he’s willing to cast the tie-breaking vote to pass it.
But as The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Jake Neher reports, Calley doesn’t expect it to come to that.
The Senate is expected to vote on the Medicaid expansion bill next week. Calley thinks there will be more than enough support for the legislation to get it out of the Senate. It’s already backed by most - if not all - Senate Democrats. But some Republicans say it would be an unprecedented and unsustainable expansion of government in Michigan.
Calley says the bill will save state taxpayers millions of dollars a year. And he’s confident that’ll convince enough Republicans to support it.
“I think we can make that case to most conservatives, that this is the most conservative option that’s available to us today,” he says.
Calley was speaking on WKAR’s “Off the Record.”
The plan would expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents through the federal health care law.
