Perry Thurston, Minority Leader and Democratic candidate for Attorney General, along with Corey Shearer, President of the Broward County Democratic Black Caucus of Florida, joined local health care advocates Thursday, demanding that Rick Scott stop his pandering and actually push for Medicaid expansion.
Last Friday, Scott stated in an interview that he “would not stand in the way” of accepting federal funds to expand the program. However, two days later during the special legislative session, Scott had the opportunity to push its passage and failed, yet again, to do so.
Scott’s position on healthcare expansion has been rated a full “flop” by Politifact. In 2009, Scott contributed $5 million to defeat President Obama’s health care initiative and in 2012 stated that Florida would not expand Medicaid because it “didn’t make any sense”. In 2013, he announced his support of the expansion but has so far refused to wield his power and influence to pass it.
“We’ve gotten used to Rick Scott not following through, or flip-flopping, or pleading the fifth, or going to bat for special interests rather than struggling Floridians,” said Thurston. “But with almost a million Floridians being denied basic access to healthcare—we simply cannot be silent.”
A new study released by the Urban Institute this month shows that Scott’s inaction has cost Floridians over $66 billion dollars in federal funding and an additional $22 billion for Florida hospitals. That’s almost $90 billion that could have benefited the state of Florida. It would have also added 120,000 permanent jobs to the economy, according, to a University of Florida study.
The financial cost pales in comparison to the thousands of Floridians that are, in some cases, literally dying because they lack the health care coverage that they would have otherwise been eligible for. According to a study by the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, at least 12% of Florida’s children are without health insurance.
“The Governor would prefer us to ignore his hypocrisy and his inaction on health care. But we have a moral responsibility to remind him that helping his constituents is his job,” said Corey Shearer, President of the Broward County Democratic Black Caucus. “If he’s not up for it, then maybe someone else is.”
