Another GOP lawmaker urges Corbett to expand Medicaid in Pa.

The third Republican state senator to publicly offer support for expanding Pennsylvania’s Medicaid rolls says he isn’t trying to criticize the governor.

Lancaster County lawmaker Lloyd Smucker says he’s on board with a move to add hundreds of thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians to the state’s Medicaid program, as authorized by the federal Affordable Care Act.

But he says he doesn’t take issue with Gov. Tom Corbett’s insistence on getting more information from the federal government about potential costs to the state under a Medicaid expansion.

“I think the governor’s approach has been a good one so far in that there are a lot of questions,” Smucker said.

Corbett has said he can’t agree to the expansion unless he gets assurances it will come with reforms and more state flexibility to limit costs.

Smucker said he has question as well, including whether accepting the expansion would mean the state could be reimbursed by the federal government for certain expenses as a way to better tailor the Medicaid overlay to Pennsylvania’s health services.

Senate Democrats are introducing legislation to compel the governor to accept the Medicaid expansion, pointing to the estimated $4billion in annual federal funding it would bring to the state.