The expansion of Medicaid to include nearly 17 million more Americans was a crucial component of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). 1. Despite the fact that this makes budgetary sense, conservative lawmakers have vehemently resisted it. Medicaid expansion has been flatly denied in numerous Republican-led states. According to an August report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, "all 50 state legislatures are in session, which means all members of Congress and every other governor in the country are available for questioning on this issue." Not one single Republican senator or representative has supported Medicaid expansion. In fact, as of early September, not a single Republican had signed on as a co-sponsor of legislation to provide federal funds for states that want to expand their programs. Even if they were to support it now, there is no guarantee that future Republican governors and legislators would continue to do so. As we've seen with previous efforts to repeal parts of Obamacare, if there's no funding attached to it then it can't be done through legislative action -- only through executive orders or budget cuts. Thus, it appears that even if Republicans support Medicaid expansion, they can't get anything done about it.