Two elected representatives from Florida testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday about plans to implement a key piece of the Affordable Care Act on Oct. 1. That’s when health-care insurance exchanges go on-line.
The hearing began with GOP members of the committee questioning the wisdom of implementing the ACA. Democrats said the law is the law and accused Republicans of working to undermine it.
State officials invited to testify before Congress followed suit with Republicans listing what they says are the ACA’s faults and Democrats defending it.
State Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, Chairs the House Health Appropriations sub-committee. He said in its present form ACA leaves too many questions unanswered and that’s why is doesn’t look very good.
“The ACA will make our health workforce shortage even worse, and has led to sky-rocketing premiums. It has kept states uninformed and puts consumers privacy at risk through the insurance exchanges,” he said. “And its Medicaid expansions threaten patient’s health and taxpayer’s bottom line.”
State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, spoke for Florida’s Democrat minority. Sobel is Vice Chair of the Florida Senate Health Policy Committee. She testified that the Republican-dominated Florida House and Cabinet are putting up roadblocks to implementing the ACA that the state can ill afford.
“Florida has the second highest percentage of uninsured residents in the nation at 25.3 percent,” she said. “Florida has rejected again the 5.2 billion dollar overs a ten year period the Federal Medicaid money which would have served 1.5 million Floridians.”
Sobel praised her colleagues in the Florida Senate who came up with a bi-partisan plan to expand Medicaid as part of the ACA, a plan the House did not support and was not adopted.
Committee members also heard from elected officials from South Carolina, Kansas, and Louisiana.
