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A once-quiet effort by governors to block the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act reached its climax in Washington on Tuesday, as state executives from both parties — who have conspired privately for months — mounted an all-out attack on the Senate’s embattled health care legislation hours before Republicans postponed a vote. At the center of the effort has been a pair of low-key moderates: Gov. John R. Kasich, Republican of Ohio, and Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, who on Tuesday morning called on the Senate to reject the Republican bill and to negotiate a bipartisan alternative. (Burns, 6/27)

GOP governors opposed to the Senate healthcare bill’s changes to Medicaid are exerting influence on their home-state senators, making it more difficult for Republican leaders to net the 50 votes they need to pass the legislation. The GOP governors could give cover to senators who oppose the bill, but they could also make it more difficult for a Republican senator to stake out a dissenting position. (Weixel, 6/28)

One in three California residents are covered by Medicaid, and California is thought to have the most to lose if Republicans gather enough votes to roll back major aspects of the Affordable Care Act. California would see the nation’s biggest increase in uninsured people by next year and face a $24-billion budget shortfall by 2026 because of reduced Medicaid funding, California's Democratic senators and Gov. Jerry Brown warned during a call with reporters on Tuesday. (Wire, 6/27)

The U.S. Senate’s health care bill would result in “devastating” Medicaid cuts to Connecticut, reaching $2.9 billion per year by 2026 and stripping tens of thousands of state residents of health care, Gov. Dannel Malloy said Tuesday. The Republican Senate plan, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, would shift the responsibility for providing a health care system to the 50 states, while reducing the amount of federal Medicaid money for those states. (Radelat, 6/27)

Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn't get to vote in Congress. But while in Washington for a meeting, he reminded Congress during a news conference that the Senate healthcare bill "is unacceptable to me." (Koff, 6/27)

[Ohio Gov. John] Kasich did want to talk about the steep cuts to Medicaid contained in the bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a pursed-lipped cadre of Republican colleagues made public last week, and how the cuts would decimate poor and sick Ohioans. Kasich said the funding provided for Medicaid in the House health care overhaul bill passed in May was “really not adequate,” but that his state could “struggle through” with some flexibility. But he doesn’t feel that way about the Senate bill. “The amount of funding that they’re putting into Medicaid… is even less than what the House had,” Kasich said, “and what the House had was really not adequate.” (Connolly, 6/27)

It’s been a couple months since Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper last spoke to Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner about health care. But with Gardner still publicly undecided about a Senate health care bill, the Colorado governor vowed at a news conference Tuesday to personally reach out to the Colorado senator in an effort to get him to oppose the legislation. (Matthews, 6/27)