Compiled from Reports by Matt Galka and Mike Vasilinda
After being defeated last week, the push for expanded healthcare is already underway for the coming session, and the fate of 1.3 million Floridians’ health insurance, which is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, could speed up the debate.
Florida Congressman Patrick Murphy was in Tallahassee on the day lawmakers were expected to pass a budget to scold the legislature for not passing Medicaid expansion.
Surrounded by state Democrats including Senate Democratic Whip Joseph Arbuzzo, state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, House Minority Leader Mark Pafford, state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, and state Rep. Edward Narain, among others, Murphy cited a pending Supreme Court ruling that could impact many Floridians currently receiving benefits under the Affordable Care Act, derisively referred to as Obamacare.
“Floridians pay a certain amount of taxes and these taxes are now going to every other state and not coming back here to hardworking Floridians paying these taxes. And in doing so, we have left 4 billion dollars on the table as Floridians,” he said.
When Amy Datz retired from her job with the state, her health insurance premium jumped to over 16 hundred dollars a month.
“My pension was only $2200. How many of you could live on $400 a month?” asks Datz.
So Datz and her husband enrolled in the ACA (Obamacare). “We saved ten thousand dollars a year in health care costs,” she says.
Now the future of her reduced health insurance premium and that of 1.3 million other Floridians is in question. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether subsidies can be legally provided in states without a heath exchange.
“There are potentially tens of thousands of people in the Tampa area that will lose healthcare, and that would be disastrous,” says State Representative Ed Narain (D-Tampa).
Rep. Murphy not only criticized the state for not tapping into the federal dollars, he said Florida should have been working on a plan that would safeguard the residents who receive tax subsidies through the federal healthcare exchange to purchase so-called Obamacare plans. The Supreme Court of the United States is expected to rule soon on the tax subsidies in the King v Burwell case. One concern is that if the plan is ruled unconstitutional, those 1.3 million Floridians will end up in the emergency room.
Under the healthcare plan that was passed by the state Senate and blocked by the House, Florida would have had an exchange. Now, without one, State Senator Rene Garcia of Miami, the man who crafted the plan to reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care, says the problem could only get worse.
“We’re waiting to see what the decision is when it comes out, and it’s a serious concern. You know — it’s 1.3 million people that will be left without insurance in the state of Florida,” says Garcia.
The court ruling is expected before the end of this month, but State lawmakers aren’t back at the Capitol until September.
House minority leader Mark Pafford is suggesting that if the court rules against health subsidies not provided by state exchanges, Florida lawmakers will have to come back to the Capitol for yet another summer special session.
