Sarasota News Leader
September 13, 2013
storing budgets that were slashed during the
recession and for blocking laws that might restrict the county's ability to strictly regulate
pill mills, among many other recommendations.
The healthcare working group named the expansion of Medicaid through ObamaCare as
its top priority, a request that was also a major feature of last fall's legislative breakfast.
Thirty-five thousand Sarasota residents could
lose out on healthcare coverage if the Legislature doesn't act, one participant noted. Despite advocacy on the issue from a variety of
healthcare groups, the Legislature this spring
rejected roughly $50 billion in federal money to fund the Medicaid expansion over the
next 10 years.
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But the issue may not be dead. Gov. Rick
Scott, who launched his political career opposing ObamaCare, has done a 180-degree
turn on the issue, coming out in favor of
the Medicaid expansion. And state Rep. Jim
Boyd, R-Bradenton, told the Sarasota County Commission in August that he thought the
expansion debate would return at legislative
committee meetings this fall, according to the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Shea and other nonprofit leaders will address
the legislative delegation directly at a public hearing next Wednesday morning, Sept.
18, when lawmakers are scheduled to meet
with county and city officials. Shea is going to
drive home the importance of working with
ObamaCare and accepting federal funding.
Ted Granger, president of the United Way of Florida, addresses a group. Image via Flickr
