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Will House Go Along on Medicaid?

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

On Thursday, even as national news outlets were treating Florida's Medicaid expansion as a done deal, mutters of trouble ahead emerged from the north end of the Florida Capitol -- the House of Representatives. 

Even before Gov. Rick Scott announced Wednesday afternoon that he favors accepting federal funds for the expansion for three years,  House Speaker Will Weatherford issued a press release objecting to it.

The release reminded Scott that the Legislature gets a vote -- and may be a signal of trouble ahead from the House.  Weatherford and powerful Appropriations Chairman Seth McKeel both used the word "skeptical" a lot in discussing the expansion this week, as Jim Saunders of News Service of Florida reported.

The loudest complainant was Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who is often mentioned as a future Republican candidate for governor. He said that sunsetting the expansion won't work, that you can't cancel the expansion three years down the road, booting 1 million low-income people off Medicaid.

He called it "bait-and-switch."

For more details of the week's announcement and aftermath, see "Scott Shocker: Let's Expand Medicaid!"

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.