Mike Haridopolos Representing Florida Senate District 26

Study: ObamaCare to add 1.4 million to Florida Medicaid rolls

May 26, 2010

by Josh Hafenbrack

President Obama’s health care reform will add between 950,000 and 1.4 million people to Florida’s Medicaid rolls, a Washington-based health care organization said Wednesday.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group, said the Medicaid expansion would cost the state between $1.2 billion and $2.5 billion from 2014 to 2019, depending on how many newly eligible people sign up for government health insurance.

The Kaiser report differed slightly from a state analysis. The state Agency for Health Care Administration predicted 1.77 million new people would sign onto Florida’s Medicaid program.

A record 2.7 million Floridians—nearly 15 percent of the population—are on Medicaid, state-federal health insurance for the poor and disabled. The program costs $19 billion, about 27 percent of the state budget.

The federal health law expands eligibility to 133 percent of the poverty line and to new categories of people, such as childless adults. The change will add 15.9 million people to Medicaid by 2019, Kaiser said.

Reprinted from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Florida Politics blog