Christine Jordan Sexton
Rick Scott made an appearance on Fox News Monday night saying why he flip-flopped on Medicaid expansion and said he was going “to do the right things to drive health care costs down.”
Scott told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren he went from supporting Medicaid expansion in 2013 when his mother died to opposing it in 2015 because of the potential cost it will have when the federal government stops fully paying for it.
“I will not stand in the way of the federal government if they want to take care of the low-income families,” Scott said. “If the federal government wants to run a program in my state, have it but don’t expect me to tax my citizens. and I still stand by that.”
Scott said he was going to “do the right things to drive health care costs down to make sure our families can get the health care they deserve at a price they can afford.”
It was Scott’s second Fox appearance to discuss Medicaid and the state’s dealing with the Obama administration on the continuation of the Low Income Pool, supplemental Medicaid funding used to help hospitals, federally qualified health centers and others treat the uninsured and under-insured. Scott said he advised Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell that her indecision on continuing the Low Income Pool program “ruined (his) entire budget.”
Scott also said he expects that the Legislature will pass a continuation budget during a June 1 Special Session to keep the state running. The 2014-15 fiscal year ends June 30. Because of a budget impasse over health care financing the Legislature did not pass a budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year during its regular Legislative Session.
A special session has been called for June 1-20 to address the budget but no “call” or official order of business for the session has been finalized. Scott has said for the past two weeks he’s working on a base, or continuation, budget. He reiterated that to Fox News Monday night. “We’ll just have a continuation budget,” Scott said.
“We’ll just do what we’ve done this last year,” he said. “We we won’t put more money into schools, which is what I wanted to do. We won’t cut taxes, which is what I wanted to do. We’ll just leave the money there and deal with it our next which starts in January.”
