HARRISBURG — Legislation to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state under the 2010 federal health care law will come up for a floor vote in the state Senate next week with conditions that will make it more amenable to the chamber’s Republican majority, the Senate’s top senator said Thursday.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said a Medicaid expansion will help the state’s hospitals stay afloat. He drew a distinction between the Medicaid expansion and the rest of President Barack Obama’s health care law, big portions of which go into effect next year.

“Health care is changing next year no matter what, and I know that some view the Medicaid expansion as an embrace of Obamacare, but clearly it’s a rational decision that needs to be made,” Scarnati said.

An expansion would cover hundreds of thousands of uninsured working adults, with the federal government paying the entire cost for the first three years and no less than 90 percent of the cost after that. Billions of federal health care dollars flowing into Pennsylvania also will boost the economy and lead to new health care jobs, supporters say.

But it is an uncomfortable issue for Republicans. Many conservatives view it as an unaffordable new entitlement for the poor, but a broad coalition is in favor of a Medicaid expansion, including hospital executives, Democratic lawmakers, labor unions, the AARP, religious leaders and advocates for the poor.

A leading Pennsylvania Democrat in the effort to expand Medicaid, Philadelphia Sen. Vincent Hughes, called talks in recent days with Republican senators “a little bit of a breakthrough.”

“They’ve kind of come along to a position where (Senate Democrats) already were, and we’re trying to work through some of their concerns,” Hughes said.

However, with a raft of legislation passing with the state budget before the new fiscal year begins July 1, Democratic-penned amendments to expand Medicaid will be unavoidable in the House and the Senate. That may have forced the hand of Republicans.

Counting 23 Democratic senators, enough Republican senators already have expressed support to pass an expansion bill. In the House, Republican leaders have remained quiet about the matter, preferring to let Republican Gov. Tom Corbett take the lead.

Corbett, who as attorney general sued unsuccessfully in federal court to overturn the health care law, has continued to raise questions about the cost to Pennsylvania and said that he would not accept a Medicaid expansion unless his administration is allowed substantial flexibility to run it.