JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – After the Mississippi House voted to expand Medicaid on Wednesday, the future of expansion is now up to the Mississippi Senate. With their own expansion bill still being worked on and a deadline fast approaching, state senators will have to make a move soon.

We can expect the Senate’s bill to have a work requirement, as well as a salary-based premium individuals will pay. State Senator John Horhn (D-District 26), who co-authored the bill, said both bills could pass the Senate.

“Once we get a sense of the differences between the two bills, the chairman will decide whether he’s going to take up our bill or if we’re going to take up the House bill. We’ll probably do both. We’ll probably wind up passing our version of the bill out and putting it on the calendar and passing off the floor and sending it to the House. And that way we’ve got two vehicles around which we can expand Medicaid. We’ll see in the final analysis which bill is taken. But that will be a decision that’s made by the leadership,” he said.

State Senator Kevin Blackwell (R-District 19), chairman of the Senate Medicaid Committee, was unavailable for an interview on Thursday. He has indicated that the Senate is in no rush to make any action on the House bill until they finish dealing with the Senate’s bill. It remains unclear what changes he might suggest for the House bill.

The Senate bill was referred to the Medicaid Committee on February 19 and faces a deadline on Tuesday, March 5 to be brought out of committee. With the deadline approaching, Horhn is optimistic a deal can be made.

“As long as we’re within the deadlines, we’re okay. We’ve got plenty of time. It’s not you know, it doesn’t mean that one bill is any better than the other just because it came first or because it came second. I think that both sides are close. I think that we’ve come too far to turn back now and that we will have one version, the final version out before the end of the session,” he stated.