State economists are struggling to come up with estimates of how much it would cost the state and how it would affect Florida’s economy if voters approve a far-reaching constitutional amendment that calls for expanding Medicaid.

Organizers, frustrated by the refusal of the Republican-controlled Legislature to back Medicaid expansion, have been gathering petition signatures to try to force a public vote on the issue.

Three Florida Republican congressmen have thrown their support behind U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie’s, R-Ky, effort to end federal taxation of Social Security benefits. 

Massie introduced the “Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act” last week and Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Greg Steube and Daniel Webster cosponsored the proposal. 

Backers of the bill point out that Social Security benefits used to be exempt from federal taxes. 

Pointing to a law passed this spring, a divided Florida Supreme Court on Monday scrapped plans to take up a closely watched case about the controversial insurance practice known as assignment of benefits.

Justices, in a 4-3 ruling, reversed course on a December decision and said they would not hear a case that stemmed from water damage to a St. Lucie County home. While the two-page ruling did not go into extensive detail, the court’s majority cited a law passed by the Legislature in April and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is working with a Republican congresswoman to increase funds and reauthorize a breast cancer education program. 

Last week, Wasserman Schultz, a breast cancer survivor, teamed with U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., to bring out a proposal to add more funds and reauthorize the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young (EARLY) Act which was first passed in 2010. So far in 2019, more than 331,500 new cases of breast cancer have been diagnosed in the U.S.