Florida is getting support from other states in its lawsuit against the federal government over healthcare funding. There are about nine other states that get supplemental Medicaid funding, called the Low-Income Pool and Texas and Kansas are among them.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownbeck and Texas Governor Greg Abbott say they’re joining Florida’s healthcare lawsuit against the federal government. Both states also get Low-Income Pool funds, which reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care. Florida’s LIP funding expires this summer. All three states have received notices that they’re programs may not be renewed unless they expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
That’s become the center of a political stalemate in Florida—where the House and Governor are opposed to Medicaid expansion and the Senate is pushing for it.
Governor Rick Scott’s lawsuit claims holding up the LIP funding unless states expand Medicaid coercion—something illegal under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But supporters of Medicaid expansion say the LIP program is a separate issue, and not part of the Supreme Court’s decision that made a larger Medicaid expansion optional under the Affordable Care Act.
