New Hampshire accepted the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare last year, but included a sunset of the plan at the end of this year unless lawmakers voted to renew it. This week, common sense prevailed as did compassion, and the reauthorization passed. That means 48,000 people will not lose their coverage. Of course, Republicans tried to gum up the works.

Hours of debate on the measure focused on whether to include a provision that would allow the law to survive even if the federal government rejects the work requirements. House Speaker Shawn Jasper broke a 181-181 tie to approve an amendment containing that provision, and the bill later passed 216-145, with 68 Republicans joining all 148 Democrats in voting yes.

The federal government will almost certainly reject the work requirements, as it has consistently done so with all the states that have tried it. That's because a large majority of people who would qualify are already working, 62 percent in a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Health Foundation. The lazy able-bodied person who wants a free ride is as much a myth when it comes to Medicaid as every other social program.

Yet Republicans continue to keep it alive. Maybe it's projection, like in the case of Rep. Tammy Simmons, a Manchester Republican. She says that she meets the income requirements for expanded Medicaid, and that without the work requirement, "I can spend my days at Hampton Beach getting a suntan and you can pay for my health care coverage." It wouldn't occur to a gimmetarian like Simmons that decent people don't think like Republicans.