Committee debates Medicaid work‑requirement changes, gene‑therapy encouragement and voting thresholds; Senate Bill 1 passes 13–9

The Ways and Means Committee devoted much of its hearing to Senate Bill 1, which would change Medicaid implementation and contains work‑requirement provisions and various programmatic details. Representative Porter led several amendment efforts during the discussion, ranging from encouraging FSSA to apply for federal models to expand gene and cell therapy access for sickle‑cell disease, to requesting reporting and procedural safeguards for administrative rule changes.

On gene and cell therapy (Amendment 5), Porter argued states should prepare to adopt treatments and models that can improve outcomes and reduce long‑term costs; he said, “sometimes it can be somewhere in the range of $3,000,000 per person” as an example of treatment cost pressures and argued prompt engagement with CMS might save money over time. Several members raised a practical problem: an application…