Florida has declined millions of dollars in grants available under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — a strategy Gov. Rick Scott attributes to his detestation of the federal health law, according to a New York Times report.
Florida did not apply for grants in recent months, missing out on $27 million available for sharing between 36 states to counsel health insurance consumers. The hospital skipped out on grants that were intended to provide in-home counseling to curb child abuse and to transfer long-term patients into their homes. The state legislature also failed to authorize an $8.3 million federal grant to expand community health centers.
Gov. Scott, a former hospital company executive, has worked to put the brakes on reform law since taking office in January. "There are a lot of programs that the federal government would like to give you that don't fit your state, don't fit your needs and ultimately create obligations that our taxpayers can't afford," he said in the report. He says that competition, personal choice and quality incentives should be the drivers in healthcare.
Gov. Scott and other state legislators said unless ordered to do otherwise by an appellate court, they had no intention of putting the law in place, even if that meant leaving money on the table. Critics say the state's Republican leadership has carried its opposition too far. They claim grants being turned away have little connection to the provisions that Florida is challenging in court, namely the insurance mandate and the expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
Read the New York Times report on Florida and healthcare reform.
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Florida did not apply for grants in recent months, missing out on $27 million available for sharing between 36 states to counsel health insurance consumers. The hospital skipped out on grants that were intended to provide in-home counseling to curb child abuse and to transfer long-term patients into their homes. The state legislature also failed to authorize an $8.3 million federal grant to expand community health centers.
Gov. Scott, a former hospital company executive, has worked to put the brakes on reform law since taking office in January. "There are a lot of programs that the federal government would like to give you that don't fit your state, don't fit your needs and ultimately create obligations that our taxpayers can't afford," he said in the report. He says that competition, personal choice and quality incentives should be the drivers in healthcare.
Gov. Scott and other state legislators said unless ordered to do otherwise by an appellate court, they had no intention of putting the law in place, even if that meant leaving money on the table. Critics say the state's Republican leadership has carried its opposition too far. They claim grants being turned away have little connection to the provisions that Florida is challenging in court, namely the insurance mandate and the expansion of Medicaid eligibility.
Read the New York Times report on Florida and healthcare reform.
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