TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Governor Rick Scott released the following statement today upon the adjournment of the Florida Senate upon the call of the President, and after the Tuesday adjournment of the Florida House:
“Now that the Florida Senate and House have adjourned, we must immediately turn our focus to how we can work together to craft a state budget before July 1st that continues funding for critical state services. There were no discussions about Medicaid expansion under Obamacare before the legislative session began. Today, it is clear that a thorough analysis of how healthcare can be reformed to improve cost, quality and access is needed, apart from the budget process.
“Our previous state Medicaid reform efforts took months of thoughtful debate in order to not only develop the best policy with the most flexibility for our citizens, but to ensure we designed something that the federal government would ultimately approve. Any conversation on new healthcare or Medicaid reforms should be similarly deliberated.
“It is important to note that we still do not have any evidence that the federal government would approve work requirements for the Medicaid program. However, there are other ideas we could begin to explore to increase access to healthcare, including having the federal government give the state a 100 percent federally funded block grant to develop a flexible program that meets the unique needs of Florida’s population. The bottom line is that any discussion about how to increase healthcare access cannot and must not be separate from a discussion about how to lower healthcare costs. Cost limits access, no matter who is paying.
Entire Press Release .pdf | Governor Scott’s website