Medicaid expansion continues to be Florida flashpoint

Health advocates and some lawmakers rallied last week in Tallahassee to expand Medicaid coverage, but the Florida House speaker says the expansion is "dead" in his state. In addition, debate over this health law provision continues in Louisiana.

The Associated Press: Lawmakers, Health Advocates Lobby For Medicaid Expansion
Health advocates and a few lawmakers spent the week in Tallahassee rallying the Legislature to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 1 million Floridians after panels in both chambers rejected traditional Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. A House committee first rejected expansion, calling Medicaid a broken program and citing fears the federal government would not live up to its promise to fund 100 percent of the program for the first three years and 90 percent after that. A Senate committee also shot down straight Medicaid expansion Monday (3/18).

Politico: Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford: No Medicaid Expansion
Florida GOP House Speaker Will Weatherford declared in an interview that the prospect of Medicaid expansion in his state is "dead" – regardless of any additional lobbying from Gov. Rick Scott (Martin, 3/16).

The Associated Press: Louisiana Spotlight: Little Data For Medicaid Opposition
If Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration wants to back up its claims that the governor's rejection of the expansion of Medicaid isn't political grandstanding, it might be helpful to present more data and research to citizens and lawmakers. A former Jindal administration Medicaid director and Republican lawmakers say they haven't received enough information to support the GOP governor's refusal to cover more uninsured adults through Medicaid under the new federal health care law (Deslatte, 3/17).