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Low-key negotiations on Medicaid expansion continued among the House, Senate and Gov. Gary Herbert's office Wednesday, but no one was placing odds on a compromise before the legislative session ends at midnight Thursday. "I remain optimistic," said Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights. "We continue to be optimistic," said Marty Carpenter, Gov. Gary Herbert's spokesman. ... Medicaid expansion — the governor's Healthy Utah plan vs. the House's Utah Cares plan — has consumed a huge expanse of the 2015 Legislature's bandwidth. The prospect of a special session on Medicaid, however, was growing by the hour Wednesday as lawmakers considered the complexity of redrafting bills — and finding money — in the session's final hours. (Moulton, 3/11)

There's a deal in the works in the ongoing back-and-forth between the House and the Senate over Gov. Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah alternative to Medicaid expansion. But there may not be enough time to get the governor, House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, on board before the 2015 Legislature ends at midnight Thursday. No one involved in the negotiations was willing to talk about the details of the compromise reportedly reached between House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, and Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights. Shiozawa said only that he and Dunnigan have had "reasonable talks" about what's expected to be a combination of the governor's plan for providing health care to low-income Utahns and the House's more limited version, known as Utah Cares. (Riley Roche, 3/11)

Lawmakers in Utah's House of Representatives rejected Governor Gary Herbert's Medicaid plan and instead pushed forward their own alternative proposal to help some of the state's poor get health insurance. Soon after a House business and labor committee voted 4-9 March 4, against the Republican governor's proposal, they turned their attention to an alternative plan from House GOP lawmakers. (Price, 3/12)

A new effort to expand Medicaid coverage in Nebraska is headed to a full debate in the Legislature. The Health and Human Services Committee voted 5-2 on Tuesday to advance the Medicaid Redesign Act to the floor. (3/11)

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday said he was willing to work with Republicans on a plan to expand the state’s Medicaid program and even offered endorsements for conservative ideas that have drawn reproach from some health advocates. Speaking at a career center in Springfield, Mo., the Democratic governor said he would support a proposal to require Medicaid recipients to work or pay more for their government-funded health insurance if it meant more people could enroll in the program. (Shapiro, 3/12)

In the latest update to the Florida Medicaid expansion debate, the League of Women Voters in Florida held a call Wednesday afternoon supporting the recent passage of a proposal in the Florida Senate that hopes to expand coverage to about 800,000 uninsured Floridians. The League’s president, Deirdre Macnab, said she was encouraged by the passage of the bill in the Senate and is hopeful it will also go on to pass in the more conservative Florida House. (McGrory, 3/11)