TALLAHASSEE — On February 20, Gov. Rick Scott announced that he has reversed his position and will expand Florida’s Medicaid program to cover the poor. The reversal is a stunning act by Scott, a former healthcare industry executive who ran as the Sunshine State’s chief executive in part because of his opposition to President Obama’s proposals to reform the way Americans receive their medical care.
Scott, one of the most vocal Republican critics of the President’s healthcare law, had tried to sue the federal government in an effort to block the law, which opponents refer to disparagingly as “Obamacare.” When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the law is constitutional, a number of Republican governors, including Florida’s Scott, opted not to expand their Medicaid programs to cover the poor.
“Floridians are interested in jobs and economic growth, a quality education for their children, and keeping the cost of living low,” the governor said last summer. “Neither of [the] major provisions in Obamacare will achieve those goals, and since Florida is legally allowed to opt out, that’s the right decision for our citizens.”
But in a news conference on Wednesday, Scott said he now supports a three-year expansion of Medicaid, during the period when the federal government has promised to pay the expansion’s full cost, and before some of those costs shift to the states.
“While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I cannot in good conscience deny Floridians that needed access to health care,” Scott explained his 180-degree turn. “We will support a three-year expansion of the Medicaid program under the new health care law as long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100 percent of the cost during that time.”
Gov. Scott, who is seeking re-election in 2014, joins Republican governors in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Ohio who have joined the Medicaid expansion.
During his press conference, Scott said that his mother’s lifelong struggle to raise five children “with very little money” and her recent death helped shape his decision to back down from opposing the expansion.
“Losing someone so close to you puts everything in a new perspective, especially the big decisions,” the governor said.
Medicaid covers three million people in the Sunshine State, costing $21 billion each year. The expansion will extend coverage to one million more Floridians.
Scott’s announcement is certain to anger many of his conservative supporters. A select committee of state legislators has been empanelled to review lawmakers’ options, with the expansion still requiring the ascent of the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature.
