The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health-care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington is about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them, The New York Times reported.

The role of the states in a restructured health-care system dominated the summer meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) in Biloxi, Miss., with bipartisan animosity voiced against the plan during a closed-door luncheon on Saturday and in a private meeting on Sunday with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

“I think the governors would all agree that what we don’t want from the federal government is unfunded mandates,” said Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont, a Republican, the group’s incoming chairman. “We can’t have the Congress impose requirements that we are forced to absorb beyond our capacity to do so.”

President Barack Obama plans to address questions about his health plan at a news conference on Wednesday evening.

Sebelius emerged from her hour-long meeting with the governors Sunday saying that “there’s a recognition that states don’t have cash right now” and that “it’s difficult to send states the bill if they don’t have the money.”

Although many governors said significant change in how the nation handles health care is needed, they said their deep-seated fiscal troubles make this a terrible time to shift costs to the states. With the recession draining states of tax revenues as their Medicaid rolls are surging, the NGA projects that states will face aggregate deficits of $200 billion during the next three years.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver plans a press conference this afternoon to brief reporters on the four-day meeting.