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Florida CHAIN Calls on Lawmakers to Expand Medicaid

With Florida lawmakers meeting in Tallahassee Tuesday for the first time since the election- Health care advocates are urging them to expand Medicaid. Florida CHAIN says Medicaid expansion would benefit 1 million Floridians living under the poverty line.

At a rally in Orlando, the group’s advocacy director, Athena Smith Ford, said those uninsured include veterans, working parents, students and the unemployed.

“A lot of people who work jobs that are the backbone of Florida’s tourism economy, so servers and people who watch our kids and the folks that clean the hotel rooms are likely falling in the coverage gap right now.”

The Florida Senate passed a Medicaid expansion bill in 2013, but the measure failed in the house. Legislators didn’t take up the issue in 2014.