State health care admin: Obamacare would cost state $1.6 billion in Medicaid
Aug 14, 2009
by Josh Hafenbrack
Florida officials have calculated that the health care proposals being debated in Congress could extend Medicaid coverage to 1.4 million uninsured residents—and cost state taxpayers $1.6 billion a year.
The analysis, done by the state Agency for Health Care Administration, found Florida’s already mushrooming Medicaid rolls would grow from 2.6 million people to around 4 million under federal plans to overhaul the health care system.
Legislation pushed by President Obama would help cover Florida’s 4 million uninsured by expanding Medicaid eligibility to include higher incomes and new categories of people, such as childless adults.
With the federal government picking up two-thirds of Medicaid costs, that would mean a $1.6 billion hit to the state budget, the study showed. That’s on top of the more than $5 billion a year the state said in February that Medicaid is costing, a figure that’s likely higher today.
“Our Medicaid program is bordering on unsustainable as it is,” said House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton. “If you add this component, you are going to break the back of Florida and every other state.”
Reprinted from the Sun Sentinel
Notes from Senator Mike
07/07/2010 - Read Sen. Haridopolos’ Letter to US Sen. Bill NelsonWith record unemployment, Floridians have had their problems compounded by the coming bill for health care “reform,” the absence of support for a space program that employs thousands, and the federal government’s slow response to the economic impacts of the oil spill. Florida deserves better.
