The United States Supreme Court said “yes” to the president’s signature legislation, the Affordable [health] Care Act.
One of its major provisions is to expand Medicaid eligibility to those making up to 133 percent of the poverty level — or $29,326 for a family of four — by 2014. Our governor’s response is, and this a direct quote: “The state will not expand the Medicaid program in order to lower the number of uninsured residents, nor will Florida set up a state- run healthcare exchange.”
Wow, Mr. Governor. I guess your response is “to hell with the low income residents of Florida that must run to the emergency rooms of our state’s hospitals because they are without the benefit of health insurance.” I guess you figure they won’t vote for Mitt Romney for president or you if you decide to run for reelection. So who cares? Right?
Who cares? The 3.8 million Floridians, 21 percent of the state, who are uninsured, care. Florida has the nation’s third-highest rate of residents without health insurance.
Scott’s excuse is that the Medicaid expansion, created by Obamacare, would cost the residents of Florida $1.6 billion a year. I wonder what it costs our taxpayer-supported hospitals to provide care for those without the benefit of basic hospitalization coverage. And, that isn’t taking into consideration the cost savings benefit of covering sick residents of our state before their sicknesses grow into major medical problems that must be supported by the same taxpayers who are supposedly being saved the $1.6 billion cost of expanding Medicaid. The math doesn’t add up.
The weirdest thing about the Obamacare program is that Romney, the Republican candidate for the highest office in the land, when governor of Massachusetts proudly sponsored and installed a healthcare plan for his state that comes very close to matching what Obama crafted and got though Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Republican answer is that what Romney did was a state’s rights issue. What Obama did was national and ultra right wing Republicans think everything except national defense and the delivery of mail should be left to the states.
A year ago conservative Republicans were congratulating Supreme Court Justice Roberts for his position supporting the Citizens United decision. Now that he took the opposite position on healthcare they want to string him up. It’s so bad that Roberts was jokingly suggesting that following the court’s ruling [on Obamacare] he was running to a Pacific island to escape the wrath of his own party.
Somebody should point out that Congress passes legislation and the purpose of the Supreme Court is to question the constitutionality of the law — not approve or reject law based upon political party bias.
This is pure party politics. Get Obama out and a Republican, any Republican, in. Republican President Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided can- not long endure.” Our house, the U.S. House and Senate, cannot long endure this political divide that is destroying our nation.
P.S. July 2’s DAILYQ in the Miami Herald: Question: Should Gov. Rick Scott allow Florida to participate in the Medicaid expansion foreseen in the Affordable Care Act? Answer: Yes, 81 percent; No, 19 percent. What say you Governor Scott?
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