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Marc Yacht: Voters should oust the politicians who refuse to expand Medicaid
Marc Yacht, Context Florida
Because Florida Republican officials are refusing federal Medicaid dollars, about 1.3 million low-income Florida residents will not get health-care coverage.
Obamacare pays the full cost of expanding Medicaid for the first three years. After that, the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost.
A family of four could qualify for Medicaid earning up to $32,000 per year. Salaries to 400 percent of HHS federal poverty guidelines would qualify for subsidies.
Prior to Obamacare, 4.1 million Floridians lacked health insurance. Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to block Medicaid expansion and enrollment, the number of uninsured has been reduced to 3.4 million.
Despite all the opposition from state Republicans, Medicaid signups in the state have beaten projections. Through February, 440,000 people have enrolled, many with the help of volunteers, including college students, citizen groups, and health insurers.
The state’s refusal to accept federal Medicaid-expansion dollars has lethal implications for the uninsured. It is projected that 1,158 to 2,221 uninsured people will die because the state refused to provide the expanded coverage.
Florida Democratic Party Has a New Website
The Florida Democratic Party debuted its new website today.
Have a look and tell us what you think.
Editorial: If Gov. Rick Scott only had a heart
Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board
February 28, 2014 3:00pm
This time four years ago Rick Scott was a stranger to Floridians. Then he spent $73 million on his first political campaign and rode an angry voter wave to the Governor’s Mansion. For Florida, this has been a hostile takeover by the former CEO of the nation’s largest hospital chain. In three years Scott has done more harm than any modern governor, from voting rights to privacy rights, public schools to higher education, environmental protection to health care. One more legislative session and a $100 million re-election campaign will not undo the damage.
This is the tin man as governor, a chief executive who shows no heartfelt connection to the state, appreciation for its values or compassion for its residents. Duke Energy is charging its electric customers billions for nuclear plants that were botched or never built. Homeowners are being pushed out of the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into private insurers with higher premiums and no track records. Federal flood insurance rates are soaring so high that many property owners cannot afford the premiums but also cannot sell their homes. The governor sides with the electric utilities and property insurers. He criticizes the president rather than fellow Republicans in Congress for failing to fix the flood insurance fiasco they helped create.
In Scott’s Florida, it is harder for citizens to vote and for the jobless to collect unemployment. It is easier for renters to be evicted and for borrowers to be charged high interest rates on short-term loans. It is harder for patients to win claims against doctors who hurt them and for consumers to get fair treatment from car dealers who deceive them. It is easier for businesses to avoid paying taxes, building roads and repairing environmental damage.