Jonathan Gruber, the MIT economist largely responsible for designing "RomneyCare" and "ObamaCare," will speak today to the Florida Senate Select Committee set up to make recommendations on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Also scheduled to speak is Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. Cannon will also be the headliner for a press conference Wednesday morning in Tallahassee by the James Madison Institute, which will present its reasons for opposing expansion of Medicaid with federal funds as allowed under the ACA.
The hearing is scheduled to air over The Florida Channel from 1 to 3 p.m. Prepared remarks and other meeting materials are posted on the Senate's website.
In other news on the ACA, Kathleen Haughney of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has produced a Q&A that is helpful in describing the decisions the Legislature faces over the next four months.
And finally, Tia Mitchell of the Times/Herald Bureau writes that Floridians may be confused by the similar names of a state-based health insurance exchange for small employers and the coming federal health insurance exchange for individuals and small employers. Both of them have decided to call themselves a "health insurance marketplace."
