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!"