During its recent session, it passed measures seeking to limit lifetime Medicaid eligibility and to prohibit Arizona from establishing a state-based marketplace where residents could buy health insurance subsidized by the federal government. Some lawmakers have signed onto a lawsuit seeking to overturn Arizona's Medicaid expansion.
But those cost-conscious measures don't apply to the lawmakers' own government-subsidized health care.
Arizona lawmakers serve the public in a part-time role, but the vast majority of these elected officials take year-round health-insurance plans that are among the most generous state-funded benefits in the nation.
Most Arizona state lawmakers take those benefits, with 25 of 30 senators and 45 of 60 representatives now enrolled in state-sponsored health-insurance plans with coverage more robust and less expensive than what the average Arizona resident gets from private employers.
