FHIX 3.0, the Senate's amended Medicaid expansion alternative, went nowhere fast Thursday, as one by one majority House members picked it apart.
Jacksonville's Mia Jones, House minority leader pro tempore, drew the short straw for the Democrats by having to present the Senate's case for FHIX, explaining it -- and trying to sell the package. She made it plain that she personally favored full Medicaid expansion as required under the Affordable Care Act.
Jones said the Senate bill would be the same as a state-based health marketplace. She said it includes a work requirement for enrollees, cost-sharing and consumer choice. The big "out," she said, is that the program would be reviewed after three years to decide whether it should be continued.
She said legislators could choose to do nothing and return in 2016, but health-care problems wouldn't go away and ultimately they would have to deal with the issue.
"The reality is, the Senate has come to the table in a spirit of compromise," she told her colleagues. "(FHIX) represents the interests of all Floridians."
Jones went on to face a firing squad of questions -- more than three dozen from the floor.
House members thought this newest Senate effort was too hastily put together.
Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, asked a number of pointed -- and from the House majority's point of view, rhetorical -- questions: Is the plan an entitlement program? How many people would it cover? Would able-bodied, childless people be taken care of?
House Democrats had their own questions staged, too. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami, asked what kind of general-revenue savings the state would realize if the program is approved. Jones gave a state economist's calculation of $547 million over 10 years.
A number of representatives brought up problems with Medicaid expansion in other states -- in Arkansas, for instance, which was over budget every month in its first year.
In fact, the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that Arkansas’ Private Option will cost nearly $1 billion more than traditional Medicaid expansion. Florida House members were nervous about that, they admitted.
The federal government's likelihood of rejecting the entire Senate plan was a recurring theme in Thursday's House debate.
At one point, Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, said, "I think ... we have three parties -- Republicans, Democrats and the Senate." No House member among the majority gave the Senate any cause for hope a compromise might be coming.
Also on Thursday, the 13 Senate budget bills were considered and amended with the substance of the House bills; the House budget bills were temporarily postponed, as expected. Senate budget bills were rolled to a third reading. Debate was virtually nil, but they "got the House into conference posture," said Speaker Steve Crisafulli.
The House floor session will begin at 11 a.m. Friday.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
