Senate Expected to Revise, Pass Medicaid Budget Bill Thursday

The Kentucky Senate Thursday is expected to approve its version of a plan for balancing the state’s Medicaid budget. The bill will get a budget committee vote in the morning, and then see action on the Senate floor.Majority Floor Leader Robert Stivers says the Senate still has two major concerns about the bill that passed the House: verification of managed care savings and debt restructuring.“When you start thinking about restructuring debt, it just doesn’t cause you to push $70 million or $140 million out. There’s tens of millions of dollars of costs that are also capitalized into that indenture and rolled out into future years for payments. So, that’s a real concern with us," he says.After the Senate passes the bill, House and Senate leaders likely will need to sit down to negotiate a final agreement. Since lawmakers are paid for weekends during special sessions, this is day 11 of the session.