Gov. Rick Scott’s been talking a lot about the health insurance program for low-income families, Medicaid. The Obama administration wants the state to expand Medicaid, but Scott says it will cost too much. But he legislature’s chief budget analyst says Scott’s cost estimate is wrong.
After meeting with the nation’s top health officials, Gov. Rick Scott repeated a now-familiar cost estimate from the Agency for Health Care Administration, AHCA. and it's over $26 billion. But there’s a hitch. The Legislature’s budget chief says the AHCA report used the wrong assumptions when it came up with that number.
Health News Florida obtained a series of e-mails from the Legislature’s budget analysts. They show the budget commission rejected the report and sent it back to AHCA because it used faulty numbers.
The governor’s health budget coordinator said they’ve decided to stick with them anyway. They don’t believe the extra federal funds will ever come.
