TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he is suing the Obama administration for withholding federal money for hospitals that serve the poor, saying they are doing so because the state won't expand Medicaid.
The announcement is another twist in what has been a gritty yearlong battle with the feds over roughly $1 billion in funds for Florida hospitals. The fight has come to a head as the state Legislature works to finalize a state budget before May 1.
"Florida is the first and only state to sue the federal government on this issue. There are only a handful of states that even have anything like" the hospital funds, said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
The hospital funds, known as the low-income pool, give federal money to hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients. Florida's funds were negotiated under Gov. Jeb Bush while his brother was president, Alker said.
Federal health officials have warned states for more than a year the program would end in June because the president's health law was intended to provide insurance to more people, meaning the hospitals would have more paying customers. But the Supreme Court decision allowing states to decide whether or not to expand Medicaid has complicated the hospital funds.
That 2012 ruling bars the federal government from coercing states into expanding Medicaid. Yet, that's what the Republican governor said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is doing because the agency insists that the hospital funds and Medicaid expansion should be part of the same discussion.
"It is appalling that President Obama would cut off federal health care dollars to Florida in an effort to force our state further into Obamacare," said Scott, who recently reversed course, saying he no longer supports Medicaid expansion.
Scott's office declined to say when he planned to sue.
The Florida House and Senate remain gridlocked with rival budgets $4 billion apart. The House is refusing to expand Medicaid and the Senate vows not to pass a budget that includes deep cuts to hospitals.
The Senate proposed a compromise that would forgo Medicaid expansion and give billions in federal funds to consumers to purchase private health insurance for themselves. Scott and the House are against it, warning the federal government can't be trusted to foot the bill. The feds have said their funding will never dip below 90 percent.