Florida will lose out on creating 64,000 jobs and pass up $15 billion in federal spending during the period 2014-2017, because of its failure to expand Medicaid, according to a just released report by The White House.
The report, entitled ‘Missed Opportunities – The Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand Medicaid’ was prepared by The Council of Economic Advisors.
Florida is one of 24 states that has refused to expand Medicaid. To date, 26 states have seized the opportunity since the Affordable Care Act became law.
The authors of the report also note that, 850,000 Floridians will remain uninsured in the three-year period, if Medicaid is not expanded. And about 160,000 will face financial hardship, borrowing to pay bills or skipping payments due to medical bills, if Medicaid is not expanded.
Gov Rick Scott has long been an opponent of the Affordable Care Act, although in 2013, he offered tepid support to expand the program. Nonetheless Scott did nothing to press Florida’s Legislature to support its expansion.
Former Gov. Charlie Crist, now a Democratic, who will likely face Scott in the November election, is in favor of expanding Medicaid and the ACA generally. He pounced on the findings of the report and issued the following statement through his campaign spokesman Brendan Gilfillan, The Tampa Tribune reports:
“Today we see yet another example of how empty Rick Scott’s jobs rhetoric is – he refused to lift a finger to create more than 63,000 new jobs in Florida by expanding healthcare to 848,000 of our fellow residents. What’s worse is this would not cost Florida taxpayers a dime, unlike the millions in misguided tax breaks he’s given to big corporations for jobs that may or may not be created.”
