Breaking from other Republican governors, Nev. Gov. Brian Sandoval will support expanding Medicaid eligibility in his state to collect federal funding available under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report.
The move makes Gov. Sandoval the first GOP governor to join about 14 states that have said they'd expand Medicaid under the law.
"I have to look at Nevada," he told reporters. "I'm not going to compare myself to any other governor. I have to look at the consequences of this very complicated law."
The first-term governor said he would propose in his January budget that lawmakers raise the income cutoff for Nev.'s Medicaid recipients by 2014 from 133 percent of the poverty line to the 138 percent mark urged by the federal legislation. He also said he'd push to lower taxes for small businesses to help them afford to insure employees.
The governor said while he disagrees with the health reform act, the change would save his state $16 million dollars in mental health programs that would now be paid for by the federal government, along with all medical costs for the newly eligible for three years. He estimated 78,000 new people would be added to the Medicaid rolls, in a state with about 22 percent of its residents uninsured.
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The move makes Gov. Sandoval the first GOP governor to join about 14 states that have said they'd expand Medicaid under the law.
"I have to look at Nevada," he told reporters. "I'm not going to compare myself to any other governor. I have to look at the consequences of this very complicated law."
The first-term governor said he would propose in his January budget that lawmakers raise the income cutoff for Nev.'s Medicaid recipients by 2014 from 133 percent of the poverty line to the 138 percent mark urged by the federal legislation. He also said he'd push to lower taxes for small businesses to help them afford to insure employees.
The governor said while he disagrees with the health reform act, the change would save his state $16 million dollars in mental health programs that would now be paid for by the federal government, along with all medical costs for the newly eligible for three years. He estimated 78,000 new people would be added to the Medicaid rolls, in a state with about 22 percent of its residents uninsured.
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