Christine Jordan Sexton
Gov. Rick Scott appeared on Fox News Thursday night and accused the federal government of behaving like the mafia and “bullying” the state during negotiations over supplemental Medicaid dollars to pay Florida hospitals.
“This is ‘The Sopranos,'” Scott said, referring to the hit HBO show about a New Jersey-based mafia family. “They are using bullying tactics to attack our state. It’s wrong. It’s outrageous they are doing this.”
Scott announced early Thursday that he would sue the federal government because it was trying to “coerce” the state to expand Medicaid under the federal health care law by threatening to eliminate Low Income Pool funding.
Scott avoided answering when the lawsuit would be filed but told Fox News that he was working Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi so it was “done in the right manner.”
Scott said the Low Income Pool — which funds hospitals, graduate medical education and Medicaid HMOs — was a federal program that helped low-income families in the state and that the federal government was walking away from it.
He said by filing the lawsuit he was standing up for 20 million low-income families who cannot afford their health care as well as Florida taxpayers.
