(Reuters)—A divided Arizona Senate passed a key piece of President Barack Obama's Medicaid expansion agenda on Thursday, handing Republican Governor Jan Brewer a policy victory over fierce opposition from conservatives in her party.
By an 18-11 vote, the Senate approved the bill with the backing of a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers that will add hundreds of thousands of the state's poorest residents to the Medicaid healthcare rolls, but was opposed by conservative Republicans.
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