Gov. Scott to sue federal government over hospital funding

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced that he will take legal action against President Obama’s federal healthcare agency for stopping Low Income Pool (LIP) healthcare funds to Florida in order to force the state to take Legislative action to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

Governor Rick Scott said, “It is appalling that President Obama would cut off federal healthcare dollars to Florida in an effort to force our state further into Obamacare. The President’s healthcare agency sent us a letter this week saying the ‘the future of LIP’ and ‘Medicaid expansion are linked.’ But, the Supreme Court has already ruled in NFIB v. Sebelius that the President cannot force Medicaid expansion on states. In fact, the Court ruled that the President could not use ‘gun to the head’ approaches in pushing for Medicaid expansion.

“Not only does President Obama’s end to LIP funding in Florida violate the law by crossing the line into a coercion tactic for Obamacare, it also threatens poor families’ access to the safety net healthcare services they need. The population in Florida served under the LIP program is different from the population that would be covered under any Medicaid expansion, as is well documented in a recent Urban Institute report that said Florida would still have $1.6 billion in uncompensated care costs with or without an expansion of Medicaid.

“We will fight to protect the healthcare of Floridians, and their right to be free from federal overreach. Our citizens already pay federal taxes that go into the federal LIP program. Now, President Obama has decided that the state must take on a larger Medicaid program, forcing our taxpayers to pay even more to government, before they get their own federal tax dollars back. This is outrageous, and specifically what the Supreme Court warned against.

“Our democracy is designed so that state governments can make the decision to not take on federal programs that will ultimately cost state taxpayers billions of dollars. We will not pass this cost on to our citizens in Florida and we will continue to fight for the federal LIP dollars our citizens already pay for with their federal taxes.”