How the state provides health care coverage for its low income families could be decided over the next 20 days as the Florida Legislature hammers out a budget for FY 2016.
Governor Rick Scott has spent much of the past month attacking a plan proposed by the Florida Senate. He created a commission that will try to switch the focus away from his lack of any long-term plan to hospitals.
The Florida House leadership has been relatively quiet, following the Mayor Ashton Hayward hide-and-seek strategy of “speaking” through press statements. Like Scott, House Republicans blast Obamacare and Medicaid, but have no alternative plan.
Several of the daily newspapers are actively covering the issue. My favorite article is in the Fort Walton Beach Daily News by Tom Mclaughlin and Zac Anderson on how the health care debate has caused some tense family dinners for Sen. Don Gaetz and Rep. Matt Gaetz – “At Odds Over Health Care.”