The Mississippi House voted Friday not to revive a Medicaid bill it killed in late January.
Democrats argued the bill should remain dead because it couldn't have been changed to allow expansion of the federal-state health insurance program for the needy.
Democrats want to consider a Senate bill because it could be amended for expansion, but House Republican leaders blocked the Senate bill Thursday.
Republican leaders say Mississippi can't afford to add hundreds of thousands more residents to Medicaid.
Under the federal health overhaul that President Obama signed into law in 2010, states have the option of providing Medicaid coverage to people making up to about $15,000 a year. The current cutoff in Mississippi is about $5,500.
The federal government would pay most of the tab for expansion.
