On Feb. 15, when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius informed Arizona that it could cut 250,000 people from Medicaid without federal permission, it wasn’t nearly as much of a surprise for Gov. Jan Brewer as it was for most Arizonans.

Gov. Jan Brewer is considering freezing Medicaid enrollment as early as April 1 for childless adults as part of a phase-out preparation for kicking 250,000 people off of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

A long-sought meeting between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took 15 minutes on Monday and ended with a typical government response: Put it in writing.

Although a bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee after midnight the morning of Feb. 23 would repeal Arizona's Medicaid system, its real purpose appears to be to start a discussion on how the state can save money on health care.

Arizona's Medicaid director says the state's economy would be crippled if the state ends its health care program for low-income people as proposed under a bill advancing in the Senate.

A divided Arizona Senate committee voted Wednesday to eliminate the cash-short state's Medicaid program and replace it with a much smaller system that would cover only a fraction of low-income people now served.

An influential legislator says Arizona should eliminate its Medicaid program because neither the cash-short state nor the debt-ridden federal government can afford it.

The chairman of an Arizona Senate committee has scheduled a hearing on his bill to repeal the state's Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

Now that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said Arizona doesn’t need a waiver from the federal government to remove 250,000 patients from AHCCCS, the timing and mechanism used in removing those people will be key to a planned legal challenge from patients contending to be harmed by the cuts. Sebelius is flanked by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

The jobs bill, announced on Monday and debated fiercely since, has passed the Arizona House and the Senate, even as many legislators acknowledged its flaws.