INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Senate Public Health Committee is advancing a proposal to expand Medicaid using the state's health savings account plan.

The panel voted 9-3 Wednesday afternoon to request that the federal government allow Indiana to use its Healthy Indiana Plan to cover the roughly 400,000 residents who would qualify under an expansion.

The measure now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The House Health and Provider Services Committee is expected to take up a similar proposal later Wednesday.

The state's actuary has estimated a full expansion alone would cost roughly $2 billion over seven years. The Indiana Hospital Association released a study Monday placing that cost at about $500 million.