A proposal to extend health care coverage in the state to more than a million people who aren't quite starving (except when they have medical bills) easily cleared a State Senate committee Tuesday, reports the News Service of Florida, but it faces a rough go in the State House.
The Senate Committee on Health Policy unanimously passed SB 7044, a bill that would use billions in federal money to implement an insurance marketplace program (but wouldn't be, as the Tampa Bay Times puts it, "straight Medicaid expansion"), which is something of an alternative to the Medicaid expansion that would occur under the Affordable Care Act.
More than $50 billion is on the table, and the proposal has support from a range of interests, from businesses to progressive nonprofits.
It would allow low-income Floridians to choose an insurance plan and cover people who don't qualify for Medicaid and have incomes less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, as long as they are employed or enrolled in a job training program. (Gotta weed out the deadbeats, dude.) That could mean, as the News Service of Florida puts it, "individuals who earn up to $16,000 a year or families of four with incomes up to about $33,000 a year would be eligible, according to Senate numbers."
So, yay, desperate people could become a tad less desperate.
"Today is a watershed day in the Florida Senate and hopefully in the Florida Legislature,'' said committee member and Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat.
The League of Women Voters came away from the hearing with similar enthusiasm.
"The League applauds the courage and leadership shown by members of this committee," LWV Florida president Deirdre Macnab said Tuesday after the committee hearing, according to a media release. "We are on the path to making history and moving Florida forward."
The nonprofit is holding a press conference Wednesday where they'll probably further express their enthusiasm for the proposal.
Senate President Andy Gardiner (R-Orlando) has said he supports the bill because it doesn't just give health care away to people for free like those commies in most other developed nations.
"Some say Florida should not expand the existing Medicaid program and I agree," Gardiner wrote in a memo to the Senate, according to the Times. "But we have the obligation to make coverage affordable and the opportunity to develop a consumer-driven approach — one that provides access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage while promoting personal responsibility. We should develop options that uniquely suit the needs of Floridians."
The bill has also gained momentum because the state is about to lose federal Low Income Pool (LIP) funds, which are used to reimburse some hospitals that provide care to the poor and uninsured. When that money goes away, the state will have a $1 billion hole to fill.
Here, of course, is where we pump the brakes.
That's because those darling little scamps over in the State House of Representatives aren't really digging the proposal so much.
"We're going to pay attention to what happens [in the Senate],'' House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said after the Senate committee vote, according to the News Service of Florida. "Certainly they're going to have conversations over there that we probably won't be having over here. But at least somebody is having them. They're vetting the issue. And it's certainly their prerogative to do that."
After the hearing even Senate Leaders said even they thought it would be a tough bill to pass.
So, in short, if you thought this bill will have an easy time passing, repeat after us: Balls.
