Lawmakers want Gov. Scott to be guided by conscience on Medicaid

Washington, DC, February 5, 2014
A group of lawmakers want Gov. Rick Scott to let conscience be his guide over whether 1.2 million poor people in Florida should get health insurance under an expansion of Medicaid. 
“Governor, last year you said your conscience wouldn't allow you to stand in the way of an expansion,” the lawmakers wrote Scott in a letter today. “We hope your conscience now will compel you to at least ask legislators to find a way to get this done.”
The letter is signed by Democratic members of Florida’s congressional delegation expressing their disappointment that Scott's recently-released state budget plan ignores an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. 
The federal lawmakers want the governor to press the Legislature to approve a means of expanding Medicaid to Florida's poor.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) joined on the letter urging Scott to renew his previous commitment to Medicaid expansion with the state's senior U.S. Senator, Bill Nelson, and U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Alan Grayson, Patrick Murphy, Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Frederica Wilson and Joe Garcia.
Florida’s refusal so far to expand Medicaid would deny health coverage to more than 1.2 million citizens. And the $51 million meant for the Sunshine State would go to fund another state’s Medicaid program. The state would also lose out on an estimated 120,000 private-sector jobs that could have been created as a result of expansion.
Following is a copy of the lawmakers' letter: