Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to raise taxes to pay for Obamacare Medicaid expansion

The Medicaid expansion component of the Affordable Care Act will not come cheap, which is why the federal government will pick up the entire costs of the expansion for the first three years, phasing down to 90 percent of the cost after that. But because of how Arizona’s existing Medicaid plan is structured, it will see large costs up front that it must find a way to fund. Gov. Jan Brewer has proposed to fund the costs through a so-called provider tax, which taxes hospitals directly. Provider taxes are neither new nor unique to Arizona, but this is the first time one has been used to pay for the Medicaid expansion, and it has drawn opposition from within Gov. Brewer’s own party.