Mitch PerryIndiana has become the latest state to expand its Medicaid program through the Affordable Care Act, as yet another Republican governor agreed to accept federal dollars to extend government health coverage to low-income state residents.
If you’re scoring at home, the Hoosier State is now the 13th to expand Medicaid under a GOP governor. Altogether, 29 states and the District of Columbia have broadened their Medicaid programs.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was able to work out a deal with the feds with some provisions that he insisted upon. Unlike traditional Medicaid, the Indiana program will require participants to make monthly contributions in order to receive full coverage. And it will allow the state to lock residents out of the program for six months if they fail to pay premiums.
Meanwhile, in Tallahassee…..crickets. There apparently is no move on the part of the governor, nor the Florida Legislature, to look at a creative way of working with the feds to insure more Floridians.
“Since the beginning of my administration, we have worked hard to ensure that low-income Hoosiers have access to a health-care plan that empowers them to take charge of their health and prepares them to move to private insurance as they improve their lives,” Pence said yesterday. “This has been a long process, but real reform takes work.”
Yes indeed. It takes work. Work that Rick Scott has no interest in, since apparently he loathes doing anything with the White House. Fine for him, not so fine for the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who go without health care in Florida.
We know there are X number of legislators in Tallahassee — check that, Republican legislators in Tallahassee — who loathe Medicaid, think it’s a bad system.
But all of those people making that decision actually have health insurance, which makes it easy on them to trash the program.
But actually our governor has said that he supports Medicaid expansion. Or at least he has said he did.
When Charlie Crist conceded the election to Scott on November 4, the only thing of substance he had to say was that he hoped Scott would work to expand Medicaid.
But that’s for other GOP governors to work on, apparently. Rick Scott’s a different cat. Meanwhile, I’ve not heard of anything planned this year to address those hundreds of thousands who continue to go without care.
In other news…
Folks in Ybor City and throughout Hillsborough County are hoping that a tax incentive program to lure Hollywood productions to Florida passes the Legislature this spring. But a state agency’s report last week said such incentives don’t bring a great return on investment. That prompted the conservative-leaning Americans for Prosperity to do a little celebration yesterday as the group continues to oppose such incentives.
That task force created by Florida Democratic Party Chair Allison Tant to review What Went Wrong last November convenes this Saturday in Orlando, but a couple of Democrats who ran on the ballot last year aren’t pleased that they haven’t been consulted yet.
One of Jeb Bush’s Achilles Heels going into the GOP presidential contest is his moderate stance on immigration. But now some Latino groups aren’t too pleased with his comment in San Francisco last week that the feds should find immigrants without legal status and “politely ask them to leave.”
