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Florida Misses Obamacare Health Care Exchange Deadline
December 15, 2012
With a Friday deadline for states to notify the federal government if they plan to run health-insurance exchanges, Florida officials said they do not have enough information to move forward with an exchange.
The stance, which echoes positions taken earlier by Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders, means it is virtually certain the federal government will run an exchange for Florida when the key part of the Affordable Care Act takes effect in January 2014.
Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott, said in a prepared statement that the governor’s office is working to schedule a meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
“At this time we do not have sufficient information on the cost of implementing a state health care exchange to Florida taxpayers, Florida businesses or Florida health insurance purchasers,” Schutz said. “We are looking forward to getting more information from HHS and the president.”
States were supposed to submit letters Friday if they intend to run exchanges in 2014.
Katie Betta, a spokeswoman for Senate President Don Gaetz, said in an email that Florida did not submit such a letter. If states do not run exchanges, the federal government will do it for them. States can request later to run exchanges, which will be online marketplaces where people can shop for health coverage.
Millions of Americans will receive subsidies to help buy insurance through the exchanges.
Lawmakers are expected to consider the exchange issue when they meet in spring 2013. Florida Republican leaders took few steps to carry out the Affordable Care Act after President Obama and congressional Democrats passed it in 2010. But after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the law in June and Obama was re-elected in November, legislative leaders began grappling with issues such as the exchange and a potential Medicaid expansion.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
18 Responses to “Florida Misses Obamacare Health Care Exchange Deadline”
As some doctor’s offices have already posted that they will not be excepting ObamaCare, what good is the insurance you’re forced to have if there aren’t any doctor’s that will take it? Mmmm, a trillion dollars for the government to spend otherwise. Like trip’s to Hawaii for Obama and his family, and don’t forget the steak and lobster dinners that we aren’t supposed to eat because it’s bad for are health, not to mention most Americans can’t afford to eat it anyways!
Scott is wrong; 1). I choose to drive, I have no choice but to live. In spite of Supreme Court politics, it is still unconstitutional to require me to participate. 2) your math is incorrect. Adding 10 to 20 million customers to a service will increase cost. It’s simple math and undeniable because this happened in Massachusetts. And that’s where people could cross state lines to get traditional care. 3) now that you mention it health care insurance should be like auto insurance; not employer provided. It was FDR’s social experiment in wage control that started this mess with forcing companies to offer “fringe benefits” to attract good workers. So now the government is going to fix a problem they created? Yea right. So you want Big Government Euro-Democracy? Ok, so be it but remember “the American republic will endure until the day congress discovers it can bribe the public with the public’s money”
It sounds like you guys have covered most of it except for two points. Some companies are cutting employee’s hours so that they don’t have to provide any insurance coverage. Also, the committee Obama appointed to oversee his plan said from the outset that it wasn’t going to work like it was intended. Said it would adversely affect the medical profession as well as the American consumer.
Obamacare is George Bush care with a plan to close the donut hole, and expand converage to people who cannot get it any other way. As has been demonstrated in several presidential elections, Floridians are some of the most ignorant people in the United States. If the Republican hold on Floridians and other states will let us stay out of wars for a few years we can care for our own citizens without going broke like most of the civilized world has been doing for years. True they have problems but who doesnt? No MORE WAR! Why are our children dying in foreign lands? Its for the rich like Halliburton who have built up the machine.
db:
Where do you get your information? He won by a bigger margin than before — popular and electoral college. Get over it. FORWARD.
db, Obama won teh popoular vote too…by a count of 65,599,965 or 50.96% to 60,861,735 or 47.28%
To: tmn actually the people voted him out electoral college votes kept him in
Florida you helped to vote him back in this is what you get. You better believe with him what you see is what you get nad you got it now for another 4.
If you really want to complain about insurance, complain to the republican congress that is about to let us go over the fiscal cliff because the Obama administration won’t cut medicare and social security, among other programs. When/if these programs are cut as much as Boehner and those want them cut, what are the elderly and disabled going to do then? Who is going to pay for their medical care?
@Scott, Well Said !!!
Starting Jan. 1 2013 I will be paying $700.00 a month for my single health care and will still pay $30.00 copay to see my Dr. and $15.00 copay for gen drugs, $30 for name brands and $50.00 copay on Drugs if my insurance co. thinks they cost to much (what a joke). I’m hoping my rates will go down once we stop paying for the ones that don’t have insurance, and I hope they will make the insurance co. Stop charging u more for meds they think cost to much.
Interesting, a lot of people think they’re going to be paying something new. Who do you think pays the bill for all those indigent patients who have no insurance and can’t/don’t pay the ER or doctor bill? We do. Who pays for the medicine for indigents who can’t or won’t pay their pharmacy bill? And, when Astra Zenica says they’ll help you if you can’t pay for your medicine? Who pays for that? We do.
Paying for others’ health care is nothing new. I just wish we could get people to take care of their health so they didn’t cost us a fortune in treatment (smoking, high fat/calorie diets, no exercise at all, etc.) And maybe the bill would go down a little.
We’re already paying the bill.
It is better for the US governemnt to run th.e Florida exchange. No one in Florida has enough sense as seen by the writing here to run it. So freaking negative and divisive, without common sense. Scarey!!
“baltazar”
You do not get it. The healthcare program will lower the cost of insurance for those who have been paying for others who did not have health insurance. Forever, those with insurance had to pay higher premiums to subsidize those who did not pay.
How much would your auto insurance rates be if we were allowed to purchase auto insurance as we currently do health insurance? Those who purchase auto insurance would see their rates skyrocket in order to subsidize those who refuse to carry auto insurance.
If you are whinning about the health care program, you should equally whine about the requirement to carry auto insurance.
Consider this view — you take your family out to eat and the eatry tells you that they will be adding a 20% fee to all paying customers’ bills because there are families that come there to eat for free. How would you feel about that?
This falls straight on the lap of Scott and the Florida legislature. They were so sure that Obama Care would be reversed by the Supreme Court and that Obama would not be reelected that they sat on their hands instead of having a contingency plan in case they were wrong. Now their worst nightmare had occurred and we will be having the federal government in charge instead of the state. Way to go boy’s.
I think Florida should join with the other states and get out of obama land. He is turning this into a welfare country with some russian overtures. Enough is enough and this obamacare is to much!
To bad all states just fobt do the same thing. Since the ” Affordable healthcare act” was passed my premiums stayed the same my deductible went up and I have to pay everything outta pocket up to 2000 than my ins kicks in. Why dont we the people of the USA get free healthcare like all the illegals and or “disabled workers” in America csn pick up the bill for a year. We’ll see how fast the political structure in thus country turns around
Rick Scott is a disgrace in terms of health care policy. He couldn’t run a hospital and and gotten trouble with the federal government over it. He sued over health care reform. And lost. And now he can get his act together to form an exchange. So the federal government will have to do it for him.
This so called obama care I another burden and taking by force money most Americans do not have, this will breake most Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, we will have more lose of homes, forclosures,
This is America land of the free, and now we are forced to pay a large amount of money, this will put millions of people on the unemployment line,
Companys out of business,
More crime , people people will try other ways to make money,