The new Florida Legislature was sworn into office this week amid much cheering and backslapping, but not a peep was made by the Republican leadership about accepting federal Medicaid expansion money. While they continue to ignore the issue, the demand for health coverage and the economic case for taking the money grow stronger.
The new enrollment period has opened for buying health insurance on the federal marketplace, and the state estimates an additional 200,000 Floridians will obtain coverage under the Affordable Care Act. That is on top of more than 983,000 Floridians who signed up during the first year of the federal marketplace, and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell appeared at the University of South Florida this week to urge more residents to sign up. The federal marketplace, www.HealthCare.gov, is working far more smoothly than during the error-plagued rollout last year, and USF has received one of the nation's largest grants to coach consumers signing up for insurance. There are more insurance plans to choose from this year, and even Floridians who bought coverage last year should review their options. Yet Attorney General Pam Bondi continues to call the Affordable Care Act a disaster, and state legislators turn a blind eye to the pent-up demand for coverage.
Perhaps a new federal report on rising Medicaid numbers released Wednesday will catch their eye. While Republican lawmakers resist expanding Medicaid, the number of Medicaid recipients is still rising as more poor Floridians discover they are qualified for coverage. More than 272,000 additional Floridians received medical coverage through Medicaid in September compared with September 2013, before the initial federal marketplace enrollment period. That is more new Medicaid recipients than in any of the 22 other states that also refused to accept the federal expansion money. More than 3.37 million Floridians now receive health coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, and so many more could be covered if Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers would act in the best interests of their constituents.
More than 800,000 uninsured Floridians make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for federal subsidies to buy coverage on the marketplace. They would receive coverage if the state would accept billions in federal Medicaid money, which could be used to enroll them in Medicaid or help pay for private coverage. The state Senate passed legislation by a 38-1 vote last year to take the federal money to subsidize private coverage, and the governor supported the bill. But House Republicans refused to act, and lawmakers dropped the issue this year.
If the moral argument for health coverage doesn't move Republican lawmakers, the economic case should. Florida Legal Services, a nonprofit legal advocate for the poor, reports that Tampa General Hospital and other hospitals that treat many uninsured patients stand to lose billions of dollars in federal funding. The Medicaid expansion money would more than offset those losses, and state business groups and the hospitals advocate taking the money.
The election is over, and it's time state lawmakers put sound public policy above partisan politics.