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A House committee voted along party lines Sunday to allow the state’s Medicaid expansion to expire on Dec. 31, 2016. a move a spokesman for Gov. Maggie Hassan called “misguided.” Hassan had called for the expansion to be extended as part of her proposed fiscal year 2016-2017 budget. During a Sunday budget review session, members of the House Finance Committee, Division III, voted 6-3 to remove an item from the budget that would have extended Medicaid expansion in the state into 2017 and beyond. Six Republicans voted to end the program, while three Democrats voted to extend it. (Feely, 3/15)

For weeks, state Sen. Todd Gardenhire of has felt activists' wrath for voting with six other GOP senators on a Senate panel to kill fellow Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee proposal. Advocates held a mock funeral outside his Chattanooga office in early February and followed up with a prayer service in front of GOP headquarters here while he was speaking about his vote to local Republicans. Someone also chalked graffiti outside his downtown office. (Sher, 3/16)

After two years of failing to convince Republican lawmakers to expand Medicaid in Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon is pitching an alternative he hopes will sway enough of them to come aboard. But key Republicans remain cool to the idea. (Griffin, 3/15)