A third Republican state senator is breaking with conservatives and Gov. Tom Corbett to support an expansion of Medicaid eligibility under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
The Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era reports Sen. Lloyd Smucker told a town hall meeting Wednesday that the federal dollars accompanying the expansion would ease the burden on Lancaster General and other hospitals that treat the uninsured.
Two other Republican senators publicly support it. They are Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Chairman Don White of Indiana County and Majority Policy Committee Chairman Edwin Erickson of Delaware County.
Corbett isn't embracing the expansion and says he's concerned about the cost to Pennsylvania taxpayers.
An expansion would mean an estimated $4 billion a year in federal money to subsidize health care for hundreds of thousands uninsured Pennsylvanians.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.