HARRISBURG, Pa.—A Republican state lawmaker on Friday publicly urged Gov. Tom Corbett to support an expansion of Medicaid eligibility, a sign that Corbett may be facing a split in his own party as several other Republican governors of heavily populated states embrace the expansion.


DiGirolamo, R-Bucks, said he understands Corbett's present stance against going along with the expansion. But DiGirolamo also made a vigorous argument for accepting it.





Corbett's insurance commissioner, Michael Consedine, reiterated that position to senators Thursday during an Appropriations Committee hearing.

"We're not willing to build on a system that we think is broken," Consedine said.


In a separate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Corbett's budget secretary, Charles Zogby, added that the federal government cannot necessarily be trusted to follow through on its promises of delivering funding to states and that it will be difficult to afford the costs the administration foresees being associated with the expansion.

Democratic lawmakers say that the Corbett administration is overestimating the costs associated with the Medicaid expansion and that it would be a net tax benefit to the state.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature have made no public move to embrace the expansion, and conservative lawmakers have publicly opposed it.