House speaker: ‘No plans’ to expand Medicaid coverage

TALLAHASSEE — Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli says his chamber has “no plans” to expand Medicaid coverage to an additional 800,000 residents during the upcoming legislative session.

“We do not plan to do anything on Medicaid expansion,” Crisafulli said last week. “I am a never-say-never kind of guy, and certainly anything can come about that provides opportunity, but at this time we do not plan to hear Medicaid expansion.”

Senate President Andy Gardiner was less definite.

“There probably should be some sort of an overall discussion,” Gardiner said. “In the Senate, we continue to remain open to the dialogue, but we understand the realities in which we live.”

The reality is that while Crisafulli didn’t absolutely rule out the possibility of an alternative health-care plan, he called Medicaid “a broken system.” He also pointed with pride to the Legislature’s 2011 Medicaid overhaul, which moved most beneficiaries into HMOs and other types of managed-care plans.

Gardiner said he’d been watching developments in Indiana, where Republican Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday that his state had accepted federal funding under the Affordable Care Act for an alternative to expanding Medicaid. The Indiana plan is expected to extend health-care coverage to 350,000 people.

Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, were sworn into the Legislature’s top positions in November and are preparing for the March 3 start of the legislative session.