Florida has filed a lawsuit charging the Obama administration is trying to force it to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
Kicking off a legal battle involving both Medicaid expansion and a separate pot of federal funding for hospitals, Attorney General Pam Bondi filed suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
The lawsuit was threatened last week by Gov. Rick Scott, who accuses the administration of trying to coerce him into expanding Florida’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act — something he and many other Republican governors have so far refused to do.
Scott contends officials are pressuring him by threatening to halt an existing flow of federal funds used to reimburse hospitals for caring for uninsured patients.
“Whether to expand Medicaid is a policy decision for Florida, and the decision should ultimately be made by Floridians, through their elected state officials, not by the federal government through force and coercion,” Bondi said in a statement.
Federal officials don’t deny they’re using the uncompensated care funds as a pressure point. But they also note that it’s well within their authority to cut off the funds at any time — and they had already notified Florida last summer that the funds might be terminated.
The issue is percolating in several other states, including Texas, which has also refused to expand Medicaid and has been notified by the administration that it too could lose uncompensated care dollars.
