Arizona missed its own deadline to send a waiver to the federal government asking for work requirements for able-bodied adults on the state’s Medicaid program.

Arizona already knows what will happen if its Medicaid program falters. In 2011, the state froze enrollment for childless adults in its Medicaid system, leading to more than 160,000 left without coverage in a relatively short amount of time.

In his ruling this morning upholding the Medicaid expansion, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Douglas Gerlach wrote that the 36 GOP legislators challenging the measure failed both to prove that the hospital assessment was a tax instead of a fee and that it didn’t meet the exemptions laid out in Prop 108.

The recent experiences of several other states bode well for Gov. Doug Ducey’s attempt to get federal approval for a package of proposed reforms to Arizona’s Medicaid program.

Gov. Doug Ducey and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System decided not to impose substantial cuts on Medicaid providers that could have cost the state’s health care industry up to $95 million over the next three years.

Lawmakers have been trying to impose premiums and copays on Arizona’s Medicaid enrollees starting next January, but that decision is ultimately up to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. And if past experiences were a guide, it’s going to be a tough sell.

Four AHCCCS patients can intervene as defendants in the lawsuit against Arizona’s Medicaid expansion program because they have a direct stake in the outcome and the program’s director may not adequately represent their interests, a Maricopa County judge said.

A liberal public interest law firm is asking a judge to allow four AHCCCS patients to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit against Medicaid expansion, arguing that the program’s director can’t be trusted to represent their interests because he answers to a governor who opposes the 2013 policy.

The fiscal year 2016 budget may only the beginning of a year of bad news for Arizona hospitals, which could face a doomsday scenario depending on the outcome of two big lawsuits.

Gov. Doug Ducey will get to keep his name off of the court case over his predecessor’s controversial Medicaid expansion program.