Christine Jordan Sexton
Former Senate President Don Gaetz spoke briefly with reporters after the Senate Health Policy Committee on Monday to say that unless the Legislature passes a plan to increase access to health care using federal Medicaid funding, it will be a tough legislative session for everyone.
“There is no way that one particular group or one particular industry is going to come out of this Special Session covered in glory,” Gaetz said. “Everyone is going to take a hit on their expectations.”
That means the hospitals won’t go without reductions, Gaetz said, and those who champion tax reductions, such as himself, won’t see those recurring cuts take place and there won’t be recurring increases in education funding.
Gaetz, a member of the Health Policy Committee, said the arithmetic “doesn’t work out ” unless the Legislature passes the Senate’s FHIX plan.
The Senate committee passed the FHIX plan unanimously Monday afternoon. The proposal would expand coverage to 800,000 Floridians using Medicaid funding under the federal health care law, often called Obamacare.
