How Medicaid broke through in three red states, and could do the same in more

WASHINGTON - Nebraska state Sen. Adam Morfeld, like health care advocates in many conservative states, was beginning to lose hope last year that his poorest constituents would ever get health coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

"After seven years of losing in the Legislature, it was apparent that passing Medicaid expansion just wasn't politically feasible here," he recalled.

Today, Morfeld and advocates in Idaho and Utah are celebrating the unthinkable: Voters in these three deeply red states backed ballot measures in this month's election to expand Medicaid eligibility through the 2010 health care law, often called Obamacare.