Florida Medicaid expansion suffers legislative setback

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By Bill Cotterell
TALLAHASSEE, Florida | Mon Mar 4, 2013 3:01pm EST

(Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott's plan to expand Medicaid coverage to cover about 1 million more poor people suffered a setback on Monday when the proposal failed to make it out of a key state legislative committee hearing.

On the eve of convening of the 2013 session, the House Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rejected the expansion. A Senate counterpart committee postponed consideration of the issue, which is sure to be one of the biggest controversies of the session.

Scott, a Republican who bitterly fought President Barack Obama's national healthcare plan as a candidate and in his first two years as governor, stunned conservative supporters on February 20 when he endorsed a three-year expansion of Medicaid, provided the federal government picks up the full cost for the first three years as promised.

"There's definitely a fight between the governor and the (state) legislature over this. The Republicans in the legislature are much more fiscally conservative than his actions have shown him to be," said Susan MacManus, a Tampa-based political scientist at the University of South Florida.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-usa-florida-medicaid-idUSBRE92312M20130304

[SugarShack]

1. K&R so they embarrass the shit out of them all over the MSM!

[kelliekat44]

9. Yes, but the MSM spin will go against the expansion also. RW media puppets. nt

[SugarShack]

2. I am furious over this!!!

[djean111]

3. It is not beyond belief that Scott knew this would happen.

This way, he gets his cake and eats it too - he can run on having proposed acceptance, but in reality - no Medicaid expansion.
All depends, IMO, on how his privatization plans were bestowed or received.

[Faygo Kid]

4. So tired of the damned right wing GOP.

Anything they can do to screw over people in need they will. I want my tax dollars to go for this, not wars.

[HockeyMom]

5. Scott wants to get re-elected

this is the ONLY reason he is doing, and looking to give teachers raises. He needs all the votes he can possibly get.

[John2]

6. It is not

one person in the GOP. The problem is with the entire GOP. The solution is the midterm elections and 2016. Start with the Republican Governors and do as much damage as possible to them in the midterm election. Once you turn the Governorships over, then you can change some laws. And the Senate is a state wide election. It shouldn't matter if Rubio is Hispanic or not, but what he believes in. So whenever it is time for him to run, the Democrats should target him. The aim would be to hurt the Republican Party.

[Tx4obama]

7. Kick n/t

[JCMach1]

8. and they continue to run my home-state into the ground