The Obama administration is encouraging states that are interested in offering subsidized private insurance as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, according to The New York Times. That could help the Florida Senate, which began moving forward Thursday with a plan that would rely on federal money to offer private coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income residents.
The Times reported that the Obama administration is negotiating with Ohio and Arkansas about proposals to use federal Medicaid money to pay premiums for private insurance.
The details of the Ohio and Arkansas proposals are somewhat different than the Florida Senate approach, because they would offer the coverage through new health-insurance exchanges, which will be online insurance marketplaces.
The Florida proposal would use an already-existing state program, the Florida Healthy Kids Corp., as a vehicle to offer private coverage.
The Times quoted a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as saying, “Our goal in working with states has been to be as flexible as possible within the confines of the law.”
