Rick Scott Closer to House than Senate on LIP

On Monday, Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., waded into the growing battle between the two chambers of the Florida Legislature over the budget and Medicaid expansion. Scott signaled that he was closer to the House side, expressing some hesitation on Medicaid expansion, including expanding the low-income pool (LIP).

Our priority is to cut more than $600 million in taxes this session and get K-12 education funding up to record levels while holding the line on college tuition, Scott said on Monday. We still have several weeks left for budget negotiations; however, given that the federal government said they would not fund the federal LIP program to the level it is funded today, it would be hard to understand how the state could take on even more federal programs that CMS could scale back or walk away from.