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Arkansas lawmakers on Wednesday endorsed Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plan to add new restrictions to the state's hybrid Medicaid expansion — a move that the Republican governor said would help in negotiating changes to a program providing coverage to more than 200,000 people. The legislative panel looking at the program's future stopped short of endorsing specific proposals to meet Hutchinson's goal to cut as much as $60 million in annual state funding to Medicaid to make up for the cost when Arkansas begins paying a portion of the expanded coverage. (DeMillo, 12/16)

Arkansas’s Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson is moving forward with Medicaid expansion and seeking federal approval for new adjustments to what has been known as the private option. The Health Care Task Force endorsed Hutchinson’s proposal Wednesday. The governor entered the healthcare task force meeting with a show of support from the Republican controlled legislature. Hutchinson acknowledged his plan to continue Medicaid expansion – in some form – doesn’t fit neatly with decisions other conservative states made about the Affordable Care Act provision. (Kauffman, 12/16)