Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford joined successor-but-one Richard Corcoran Thursday morning to announce their chamber's proposed alternative to the Obamacare Medicaid expansion: the establishment of a state-assisted marketplace they're dubbing the "Amazon.com of health care for Florida.
If approved by the full Legislature, their proposal would enroll about 115,310 Floridians living under the poverty line uninsured parents with children under 18, as well as disabled persons receiving federal Social Security assistance in a program called Florida Health Choices Plus. Enrollees would be given $2,000 by the state annually to purchase any combination of health coverage and services through the Florida Health Choices website.
Available products include health insurance policies, health maintenance contracts, limited benefitplans, prepaid clinic services, service contracts, bundled services (arrangements with providers for purchase of specific amounts and types of health services and treatments), and short-term policies.
The House proposal would expand a program that's been in existence for several years, since Marco Rubio was speaker.
Corcoran, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or Obamacare), compared the Florida Health Choices website to a farmers' market online marketplace and said the House was trying to create the Amazon.com of health care for Florida.
The legislators emphasized the assistance wasn't a free ride: recipients would have to contribute $25 a month to participate in the plan, and would have tomeet work requirements consistent with those in the federal cash assistance and food stamp programs.
Weatherford told reporters at a phone conference that the House plan, which would be filed as a bill later in the day, conformed to five principles he considers essential for Florida moving forward on health care reform:
Reject the federal government's 'all or nothing' plan.
Embrace a free-market solution.
Strengthen the safety net."
Ensure the integrity of our existing health care system.
Protect taxpayers by only considering plans that are sustainable.
Asked how optimistic he was about being able to sell the House plan to the Senate, where PPACA Committee Chairman Joe Negron has suggested taking federal dollars to institute a voucher program for the uninsured, Weatherford said he is confident senators will come around once they realize the House is not budging on its principles.
The ships have been burned; there's no turning back for us in the Florida House, Weatherford told reporters, referring to the legendary destruction of his ships by the explorer Hern Cort, to fortify his troops' resolve to colonize the New World. We hope that when [senators] recognize that we're serious about not expanding [Medicare], they see this as a real alternative that is not reliant upon money, that is not sustainable, by the federal government.
Corcoran added that he's been having discussions with Gov. Rick Scott, who has expressed interest and openness to the House proposal.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
