Medicaid/care expansion in the states: statutes vs. Executive Orders

[Sir Mohamed]

Why did some states expand Medicaid and Medicare under Obamacare by a statute (passed by the legislature) and others by Executive Orders of the governor? Is a state law required or not?

I know that some Democratic governors with a GOP legislature did this (Wolf in PA; he made changes of Corbett's helath care program via a decree, and John Bel Edwards did so these days).

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As you noted, it depends on the state. Different states have different levels of deference given to the executive. That said, the fact that in its initial stages, Medicaid expansion required no additional state funds likely made it possible in some states for expansion to happen purely by executive action. (Medicare is a purely Federal program, so any changes to it are not affected by state-level politics.)