Months after Florida lawmakers rejected $51 billion from the federal government to expand Medicaid, state officials are prepared to request billions in new federal aid for a different program to improve care for the poor, uninsured and under-insured.
But this cash grab, for whatever reason, has yet to ignite a political furor.
State officials want to grow their Low Income Pool (LIP) program from $1 billion a year to possibly $3 billion a year, said Justin Senior, deputy secretary for Medicaid at the Agency for Health Care Administration. The additional money could be used to help hospitals cover charity care, provide premium support for low-income Floridians or expand current healthcare programs.
“Our feeling at the agency is that there are opportunities here to make the LIP program larger,” Senior recently told lawmakers, who didn’t object. “We have talked with the federal government about that, and the federal government, by and large, they seem generally receptive to the possibility of it.”
TVNL Comment: They'll ask for the money and give it a different label. What infantile hypocrisy. So, what else is new?