LANSING – The chance that Michigan could expand Medicaid eligibility was in serious doubt Thursday as the Senate adjourned without voting on the issue, and Governor Rick Snyder essentially called on the state’s population to nag Senate Republicans back to action.

The stunning development late Thursday left Snyder as close to enraged – though he refused to say he was angry – as he has gotten in office, and in a press conference accused his fellow Republicans in the Senate of failing to show leadership.

“I call on all Michiganders to sustain that effort” to push Senate Republicans to act “until we get that yes vote,” Snyder said at his press conference.

In the immediate aftermath of the Senate adjourning until late August, it was unclear what strategies would be put forth by supporters of the proposal to expand eligibility for Medicaid to those with incomes of up to 130 percent of the federal poverty level to win over the recalcitrant Senate members.

At least one supporter said an ongoing education effort, both with Senate members and his membership, is needed on what his organization viewed as the importance of the issue to the state and to business.

Snyder was also asked if he would consider vetoing all legislation until the Senate acted, a tactic employed with success by Governor Jan Brewer in Arizona to win expansion of Medicaid. Snyder said there were several options under consideration.

The immediate response was pointedly angry at Senate Republicans.

The Senate has hung a “gone fishing” sign out while the state awaited action on health care, Michigan League for Public Policy President Gilda Jacobs said.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) said the legislation would save the state money, but Senate Republicans seemed “more concerned with taking a vacation than doing the work they were elected to do.”

But as angry reactions to the decision to leave the Capitol for two months flooded in, it was also clear that not everyone was upset with the decision.

Scott Hagerstown with Americans For Prosperity praised the Senate, saying it had stood up for “good policy over politics” by refusing to “expand the broken Medicaid system.”

And Wendy Lynn Day, a tea party activist who is running for the House, said on her Facebook page, “When the lobbyists are mad, chances are the people win.”

Rob Fowler, CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan, pointed to the tea party as a major reason for the inaction on Thursday. It seemed, he said, “an overreaction” to an idea that was “not well thought out.”

“I’ve talked with friends of ours,” Fowler said referring to Senate Republicans, “who would not listen to the arguments because they were locked into this idea that ‘it’s Obamacare.'”

Kenneth Elmassian, president of the Michigan State Medical Society, said the organization with work with legislators to get the issue resolved.

But time was a major worry to the administration of Snyder. Community Health Director James Haveman said it would take some 120 days to write and request the waivers the state would need from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The longer it took to get that underway the more difficult it would be to win approval of those waivers.’

When the Legislature, and specifically the Senate, does return is something of a question. While the Senate approved SCR 9 , saying the chamber would not return until August 27, the House did not act on the bill.

That means at least technically the Senate will have to return on Wednesday, July 3, for, at minimum, a pro-forma session should not a full regular session be called.

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