One of two hospitals that held out support for Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan out of concerns the proposed hospital tax would cost more than they would get back is officially on board.

After Yavapai County jumped on board, three other county governments officially backed Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal to expand Medicaid.

Gov. Jan Brewer forcefully declared that her proposal to expand the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to hundreds of thousands of new patients is a pro-life plan. As a pro-life governor, she said, she will not sit idly by while people suffer. Since then, opponents of her plan have taken up the pro-life mantle in the Legislature.

Once again, Randy Pullen is coming to Gov. Jan Brewer’s defense at a time when she needs allies on the right.Pullen, the former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, penned a letter urging Republicans to support Brewer’s plan to expand Medicaid coverage in accordance with President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Do the math.

Those three words essentially sum up Gov. Jan Brewer’s core argument in favor of expanding the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program. She repeats them at every press event, every interview and every plea for support.

One source close to Brewer told our reporter that the core sentiment of Brewer’s letter this week to PCs was emblematic of the way she approaches public service – and though it was sent to the PCs, its message is aimed in many ways at GOP legislators.

More than six weeks after Gov. Jan Brewer surprised fellow Republicans by announcing her plan to push for Medicaid expansion, the proposal has yet to be formally introduced in the Legislature.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan has no shortage of critics, but for those opponents, the Ninth Floor wants to know the answer to one question — what’s the alternative?

Based on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System’s (AHCCCS) blueprint, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is rebuilding his state’s Medicaid program. He is the 21st governor to develop a broader Medicaid program. Finally, Florida can do what we in Arizona pioneered: Establish a private-public partnership where private health plans, not the government, coordinate health care for their patients. It’s refreshing to see states across the country emulating Arizona’s model of patient-centered care managed in the private marketplace.

The Governor’s Office unveiled an $8.9 billion budget plan today for fiscal year 2014, which included $317 million in new spending. “We’re finally comfortable using red, so that should tell you something about the state budget,” John Arnold, director of the governor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting, joked about the bright red color of the budget books distributed to the media at a press briefing today.