TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Governor Rick Scott filed a lawsuit against President Obama’s federal healthcare agency for ending the Low Income Pool (LIP) healthcare program in an attempt to coerce the state to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi have asked Paul Clement, the attorney who successfully argued that the Obama administration could not coerce states into Obamacare in NFIB v. Sebelius in 2012, to represent Florida in the case.
Governor Scott said, “President Obama’s sudden end to the Low Income Pool (LIP) healthcare program to leverage us for Obamacare is illegal and a blatant overreach of executive power. His administration is effectively attempting to coerce Florida into Obamacare by ending an existing federal healthcare program and telling us to expand Medicaid instead. This sort of coercion tactic has already been called illegal by the US Supreme Court.
Gov. Rick Scott
“If the Obama administration can arbitrarily and capriciously end one healthcare program in Florida, likely leaving our state taxpayers to foot the bill, it would be irresponsible to further obligate state taxpayers by going deeper into Obamacare with an expansion of Medicaid. Moreover, the Obamacare expansion scenario contemplated at the state level in Florida would stick Florida taxpayers with a $5 billion bill over 10 years, at minimum. There is no true ‘free money’ for states through Obamacare, as we can plainly see from mounting cost estimates in states across the country.
“Every part of Obamacare has ended up costing more than was originally anticipated and resulted in Florida citizens losing the insurance plans they liked and were told by the President that they could keep. This is also why an Obamacare expansion plan that would force Florida citizens off of the private insurance plans they currently have through the federal exchange and onto Medicaid would be yet another forced interruption in healthcare services and consumer choice.
“Providing Floridians, especially our low income population, with access to affordable, high quality healthcare remains one of our top priorities – and the driving force behind our Medicaid reform efforts over the last several years. How we provide access to healthcare and insurance is a matter for intense deliberation and careful action. It is not a bargaining chip to be used by the Obama administration to force Florida into taking on Obamacare.”
