We already know that Florida's Republican lawmakers could care less if low income Floridians die without the health care they would have access to if the legislature had allowed Medicaid expansion. After all, Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford has proudly bragged about blocking it, even though his own family befitted from it. While blocking it, they've made excuses, claiming that it will cost too much for Florida taxpayers later on (which has been debunked), in spite of the fact they're sending away Florida tax dollars we've already paid by turning down that $51 billion in federal funding. If they really care about our tax dollars, why are they still sending them elsewhere?
There is no plausible logic in their reasoning for cutting off the uninsured. They, along with all the others in their party, simply don't like President Obama, nor his Affordable Care Act in spite of its success. They are perfectly willing to let Floridians die for spite. Pure and simple.
This point is about to be proved again, because Sen. Bill Nelson has just called their bluff with a solution, and already Republicans are balking at his proposal:
For months, Nelson has sought a way around the opposition while still meeting federal requirements. He thinks he has found it in a never-tried-before plan: Using health care dollars raised by counties to get the $3.5 billion needed to draw down $51 billion in federal funding.
"If you really want to get it done, and if your reason for opposing it really was that you didn't want to commit state tax dollars in the out years to expanding Medicaid, then this is the opportunity to do that," Nelson said Wednesday.
His plan would require the 32 counties that boost their hospitals' Medicaid funding with local dollars to instead use those dollars to draw down the federal funds. All 67 Florida counties would benefit, even if they didn't contribute.
"Whatever is done has to be done on a statewide basis," to meet federal requirements, said Tony Carvalho, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.
Nelson said hospitals and county officials have indicated to him that they're willing to shoulder the burden so people who lack primary care aren't forced to seek help at emergency rooms.
"It's like taking the local tax dollars out of one pot and putting it in to another pot, and it's the same tax dollars," Nelson said. "That's why they're willing to do it."
One problem: Lawmakers in Tallahassee would probably still have to approve and administer Nelson's proposed solution. Republican lawmakers:
A spokeswoman for Senate President Don Gaetz said Nelson's plan isn't the answer.
"Utilizing local dollars to fund the state portion of an expansion of traditional Medicaid does not address President Gaetz's concern with the federal government's ability to finance Medicaid expansion in the long-term or his belief that traditional Medicaid is a broken program that providers, patients and taxpayers are unhappy with," spokeswoman Katie Betta said.
In other words, another day, another proposal, but the same excuses.
To say Medicaid is broken is ridiculous when those who want it to fail the most do everything in their power to break it, and a solution to the tune of $51 billion from the government is blocked by those very same people. The only people unhappy with it are the ones who need access to it and can't get it because the Gaetz and Weatherfords of the state are standing in the way.
As for others, here's what one of those "unhappy providers" has to say about Nelon's proposal:
Even if it fails, Nelson's attempt to re-ignite the debate is laudable, said South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association president Linda Quick. "I was glad to hear and read he was pursuing out-of-the-box kinds of ways to diminish or mitigate (lawmakers') opposition," she said.
By not expanding Medicaid, the state is left with a coverage gap, or a better description would be a "Scott gap," that 764,000 are falling into. Thanks to Republican job and wage theft policies, and their opposition to things like minimum wage and sick pay, those numbers will get much higher before long.
Meanwhile, Nelson says he is realistic about his proposal's prospects.
"If (legislative leaders') real reason for not expanding Medicaid is they're not going to do anything to support anything having to do with the Affordable Care Act because of their ideology or because they don't like the president, then of course answering their stated objection isn't going to make any difference," the senator said.
And it probably won't. Republicans made opposition to the ACA their main electoral goal long ago, and in spite of the growing popularity of Obamacare, they have no Plan B. Add to that, they really don't seem to care when it comes to doing anything to help those who need it most.
Again, they're content to let people die purely out of spite.
