JUNEAU, Alaska Alaska's governor said on Thursday he would use his executive powers to expand the state's Medicaid health program for the poor, in a bid to sidestep political opponents and bring coverage to more than 20,000 uninsured residents the first year. 
 
 Governor Bill Walker said Alaska would accept $146 million in federal funds made available under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law, citing nearly 30 other states that have expanded Medicaid coverage. 
 
 "(They) have already made the commonsense decision to accept Medicaid expansion. Why? Because it helps their residents, their economies and their budgets," Walker told reporters in Anchorage. 
 
 Walker, an independent, has already had several expansion efforts blocked by the Republican-led state legislature since he took office after winning the November 2014 election. On Thursday, he said bypassing the legislature and accepting the funds was a final option. 
 
 Obamacare envisions major expansions to the Medicaid program, though about 20 U.S. states, many Republican-controlled, have rejected that part of the law, according to Kaiser Family Foundation figures. 
 
 Political divides have stalled the expansion of Medicaid coverage in states concentrated in the South and central West. 
 
 In Alaska, the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee has the authority to review requests for federal funds when the legislature is not in session. 
 
 The committee has until Sept. 1 to vote whether or not to support the state's request for money, or to recommend a special session of the legislature to review expansion options. 
 
 After Walker's announcement, the committee's chairman, Representative Mike Hawker, said the panel’s role is a formality and simply influences how quickly the money is made available. 
 
 In a letter to Hawker, Walker's budget director, Pat Pitney, cited as benefits an estimated $1 billion in new federal healthcare dollars for the next six years, $100 million in savings to the state treasury and 4,000 new jobs. 
 
 Expansion opponents have said Alaska should not risk the possibility the federal government would pull the program and leave the state committed to something it cannot afford. 
 
 "Today's spending will be paid for by tomorrow's taxpayers," said Republican state Senator John Coghill. 
 
 (Reporting by Steve Quinn; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Eric Beech) ||||| Alaska’s Gov. Bill Walker will move on his own to expand Medicaid under the federal health law, a step that would bring the number of states opting into the law’s expansion close to 30 and make it more likely other states would follow. 
 
 The independent governor on Thursday said he had sent a letter to state legislators saying he will apply directly to Washington to extend Medicaid coverage to most residents whose incomes are up to one-third above than the poverty line in his state, and that legislators would have to call a...
– Alaska's legislature didn't move to expand Medicaid, so Gov. Bill Walker is doing it on his own. Walker says he plans to accept $146 million in federal funds that his state has access to under the Affordable Care Act in order to cover some 42,000 residents who qualify under the program, Reuters and the New York Times report. Walker, who is just seven months into his term, had made expanding Medicaid a campaign priority. "This is the final option for me," he says. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee will now have 45 days to act before Walker accepts the funds; he says he can proceed regardless of how the committee responds. The federal government will take on the full cost of the expansion at first, then shave its cut to 90% by 2020. Some 28 other states have expanded Medicaid under the law, but just Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio did so without legislative consent. Walker, who calls the move a "common-sense decision," says his bills seeking expansion approval were all blocked by Republicans worried about the tab Alaska would have to pick up in the future. "Regardless of federal funding, we cannot afford the Medicaid system we have now," says Republican state Sen. Pete Kelly. "Our current system is broken." Walker hopes to begin enrollment in September and have 20,000 signed up within one year. The Wall Street Journal observes that the move will "bring the number of states opting into the law's expansion close to 30 and make it more likely other states would follow."