Arizonans are beginning to warm to the new federal health insurance marketplace, but actual enrollment numbers for new private policies that will take effect Jan. 1 are still extremely low.

In asking the federal government to extend its authority to continue Medicaid coverage for childless adults, Arizona plans to request a higher level of funding available under the Affordable Care Act.

A year ago, Republicans boasted that they made the tough decisions on state spending needed to close a massive budget deficit. The decision to freeze enrollment in state-funded health care for the poor was held up most often by Republicans as a shining example of how they addressed the festering fiscal imbalance.

But one incentive might persuade Arizona’s policymakers to let the uninsured back into the Medicaid fold: cash — lots of it.