The Medicaid expansion is not a done deal in Florida

As has widely been reported, Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott recently agreed to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion for the Sunshine State. However, Avik Roy (co-author of a good piece on why the expansion is a bad idea) explains that this doesn’t mean that the expansion will occur in Florida.

Roy relies on the reporting of Tia Mitchell of the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald, who covers health care developments in Tallahassee. Mitchell notes that Scott agreed only to support the expansion if the legislature votes in favor of it. But according to Mitchell, the Florida House may very well reject the expansion.

Scott’s stance (as reported by Mitchell) would enable him to “have his cake and eat it too,” in Roy’s words. If the legislature rejects the expansion, he doesn’t take much heat for having agreed to not to block it. At the same time, he avoids responsibility for the absence of the expansion.

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