A day after U.S. Senate leaders released a proposal to replace the federal Affordable Care Act, Gov. Rick Scott on Friday raised concerns about whether Florida would be treated fairly in Medicaid funding.
Scott and other Florida Republican leaders have long called for repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, and for shifting more control of Medicaid money to states. But key details of replacing Obamacare include how money would be parceled out to states in a revamped Medicaid system.
Scott's office Friday released an op-ed piece in which the governor compared Florida to New York.
“States like Florida that have run increasingly efficient Medicaid programs, and have not expanded Medicaid, must be rewarded and treated fairly under any bill,” Scott wrote in the op-ed. “What's concerning is that under the most recently proposed Senate bill, tax and spend states like New York will continue to be rewarded for running an inefficient Medicaid program.”
Scott said in the op-ed that New York has run a far more costly Medicaid program. “How is permanently locking in these spending levels fair to Floridians when New York has been terribly inefficient with their taxpayers' dollars?”
Scott wrote. “The federal government should cut income taxes for Floridians by 30 percent. This would put our share of federal Medicaid funding as a percentage of taxes paid on par with New York.”
