Aide Defends Florida Governor's Opposition to PPACA Medicaid Expansion

The expansion could eventually cover in excess of 1 million more Floridians, but the economists don’t believe all those eligible will participate. They are revising the dollar estimates downward, but Burgess said Scott is worried the costs, instead, will increase in the future.

Critics say Scott is being penny-wise and pound-foolish to oppose adding billions in federal money to Florida’s economy. Many Republican governors favor the repeal of what they call “Obamacare.”

Among those critical of Scott’s stance are the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank in Tallahassee. The center released a report this week disputing Scott’s claim that Florida’s Medicaid program has been growing more than three times as fast as the state’s general revenue.

It says Scott’s statistic is inflated due to the recession and contrived to make any Medicaid growth appear as extreme as possible.

“The net cost to the state of extending Medicaid coverage to more than a million of the lowest-income, uninsured Floridians would be little to nothing,” the report concludes. It says that’s particularly the case when factoring in savings to be gained from reducing uncompensated care that uninsured patients receive in emergency rooms.

Burgess also said Scott erred by claiming to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren last month that the expansion would cost Florida taxpayers $1.9 billion a year. He said Scott meant to say $1.9 billion from 2013 to 2020.