A judge in Arizona ruled Wednesday that a hospital assessment that pays for the expansion of the state's Medicaid program is constitutional, according to an Arizona Daily Star report.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Douglas Gerlach rejected arguments by opponents of the hospital assessment who argued that the levy is actually a tax and therefore should have been passed by a two-thirds vote in the state legislature.
Judge Gerlach accepted the arguments made by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program, that the fee fits the definition of an assessment because the AHCCCS and not lawmakers levied it.
Judge Gerlach's ruling preserved healthcare benefits for some 350,000 Arizonans, but that may change. Arizona Senate Majority Leader Steve Yarbrough (R-Chandler), who was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said an appeal of the case is all but certain, according to the report.
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