Question

Recently the Medicaid program was expanded in the state of Maine through a voter referendum. I attached an article regarding the vote last week in Maine to expand Medicaid coverage for your review in your announcements. This is an interesting approach to utilize this ACA provision through a voters referendum rather than through state legislation. This could impact several other states who have not expanded Medicaid yet. As all of you know Florida is one of the states that has not expanded coverage. Discuss with your other classmates your thoughts on how this could impact healthcare delivery here in Florida if it occurred? How will the state fund the future healthcare costs of such a shift in coverage? What is the impact to the providers in the market if this were to occur?

. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-maine-medicaid/voters-in-maine-approve-expansion-of-medicaid-under-obamacare-idUSKBN1D80G0

Answer 1

The main reason for not expanding Medicaid in Florida is the Federal Government is not ready for funding. Almost the Florida is spending $89 billion on health care. Another reason people have low income to qualify under the program. almost 3,84000 people are in the coverage gap. The federal government not ready to change the eligibility criteria. Florida is not trusting on the federal government as they will reduce the cost of healthcare. They believed that the expansion of Medicaid under ACA focus on children, pregnant woman and not on adults. They arguing that the Medicaid expansion puts extra pressure on low-income families. Like Maine, Florida will not lead in the voter referendum. Besides this, Florida is highly populated where the initiatives of the ballot will be more expensive and complicated to implement. Moreover, implementing Medicaid expansion through the ballot without analyzing the issues will create conflict between the democratic rights and elected state government.