/ Modified nov 12, 2013 8:15 a.m.

Judge to Hear Arguments for Medicaid Expansion Blockage

Lawsuit seeks to block Gov. Brewer's plan to expand health care program; suit filed on behalf of 36 GOP AZ lawmakers.

A judge will hear arguments in a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Jan Brewer's Medicaid expansion plan early next month.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper set a Dec. 9 date to hear the suit filed in September on behalf of 36 Republican state lawmakers and a pair of citizens.

The suit targets Brewer's plan to expand the state's health care program for the poor to about 300,000 additional Arizonans.

The conservative GOP lawmakers argue that a hospital assessment used to pay the state's costs is a tax requiring a two-third vote of the Legislature under the state Constitution.

Brewer's lawyers want Cooper to throw out the suit. They say the plaintiffs don't have standing to sue and lawmakers could sue to stop any law it moves forward.

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