(Bloomberg) — Tennessee has moved to the forefront of a new group of Republican-led states jockeying for hundreds of millions of dollars available under Obamacare for Medicaid expansions.

Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, announced today that the state would expand its Medicaid program for the poor under a "real Tennessee solution" that the Obama administration supports in principle. Indiana, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska are also considering an expansion, at least 90 percent of which would be funded by the federal government.

All of the states cast their expansions as departures from the traditional Medicaid program, in which participants pay little or nothing toward their care and the government compensates most doctors and hospitals directly. Their modified programs would generally require individuals to bear more of the costs of their health care. It's a compromise that lets state Republicans work with the Obama administration even though their party rejects the health-care law.