Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey wants able-bodied Arizonans on the state's Medicaid program for the poor to pay into health savings accounts and be charged co-pays for some services, but those proposals and others he's touting got a tough reception at the first meeting where the public was allowed to weigh in.

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.

Conservative opponents of former Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan will finally get their day in court. Judge Douglas Gerlach will hear arguments in the case in Maricopa County Superior Court at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

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.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper has rejected arguments by Tom Betlach, director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System – Arizona’s Medicaid program – that he can effectively protect our state’s expanded Medicaid program by serving as sole defender in a lawsuit filed by the Goldwater Institute.

The Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest wants to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit against Medicaid expansion, arguing that AHCCCS Director Tom Betlach does not necessarily represent the interests of its clients, four childless adults that are receiving Medicaid coverage as a result of the 2013 law.

The Obama administration’s willingness to cut deals with Republican states as a way of getting them to cover more people under the Affordable Care Act has given Arizona’s conservative leaders the perfect opening to push for premiums and bigger copays on Medicaid members.

Arizona legislators advanced a budget deal struck by Senate and House leaders and Gov. Doug Ducey, but the bills won’t move any further unless GOP leadership can change the minds of more than a dozen rank-and-file members opposed to the spending plan.

GOP lawmakers have won the right to challenge former Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion program, and now a Maricopa County judge has scheduled their day in court.