Prospects for the Medicaid expansion in Florida dimmed further Monday after a panel in the Republican-controlled Florida state Senate voted against expanding the state’s Medicaid program, CNN reported. Republicans in the Florida state House also voted it down a week ago, even though Republican Gov. Rick Scott supports the expansion.
Unless the state’s lawmakers come to an alternative compromise with Scott on expanding Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans would not be expanded in Florida. Scott, a Republican who campaigned heavily against Obama’s health care law in 2010, said he would accept the federal dollars last month.
“I am confident that the Legislature will do the right thing and find a way to protect taxpayers and the uninsured in our state while the new healthcare law provides 100 percent federal funding,” Scott wrote in a statement after the Senate committee’s vote.
