Last year, the Republican leadership in the Florida House made the ridiculous decision to reject $51 billion in federal aid to expand Medicaid eligibility to 1.2 million Floridians. Once again, a coalition of healthcare advocates will be fighting for the healthcare rights of all Floridians.
The chief bad guy in that decision was House Speaker Will Weatherford, who basically threatened his Republican legislators if they supported expanding Medicaid. The Senate was ready to do something on their side and even Gov. Rick Scott said he supported doing that, although he did absolutely nothing to fight for it.
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Call 866-443-1844 today. Tell your legislator it is time to expand access to health care for Florida families |
Florida has the second highest percentage of uninsured in the country and more people have enrolled in the new health insurance marketplace here than in any other state. If Florida refuses to expand access to health care for those in the “coverage gap” then lower-income residents will stay uninsured, even as people with higher incomes get help purchasing coverage.
Floridians who fall into this “coverage gap” will earn too little to qualify for tax credits to purchase coverage, but Florida still won’t allow them to access coverage. This is bad health care policy and it’s unfair.
Moreover, this new funding would provide a massive economic boost for Florida. The federal government will fully cover the cost of newly insured Floridians until 2017 and then cover 90 percent or more of the cost each year after. Thousands of health care related jobs across our state would be created.
The good news is that Sen. Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah) and Rep. Amanda Murphy (D-New Port Richey) have recently filed legislation to green light federal funds to provide more Florida families with health coverage.