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Advocates call on Florida to implement federal healthcare law; others say 'not so fast'

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the federal healthcare law, several healthcare advocacy groups are calling on Florida officials to implement it in its entirety. But not everyone is on board. And others say the state has a valid point in taking things slow.

Governor Rick Scott says Florida won’t be implementing certain parts of the healthcare law, such as expanding Medicaid for low-income people and setting up insurance exchanges. And Florida State University Medical professor Marshall Kapp says Florida officials are right to be wary about the law, because there’s no guarantee the funding for those programs and others, will be around when its time for the provisions to go into effect.

 “I suspect we’ll see a lot of action in the next Congress attempting to starve the ACA by not appropriating money to implement it."

Kapp says supporters may be overly optimistic about the law's chances of surviving in its entirety. While Supreme Court has upheld the law as constitutional, the fight over it is far from over. The Republican-controlled House has already set a vote to repeal the law but it’s not expected to clear the Democratically-controlled Senate.

 

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Lynn Hatter is a Florida A&M University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Lynn has served as reporter/producer for WFSU since 2007 with education and health care issues as her key coverage areas.  She is an award-winning member of the Capital Press Corps and has participated in the NPR Kaiser Health News Reporting Partnership and NPR Education Initiative. 

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