House Passes Budget As Lip Squabble Continues

April 3, 2015

The House on Thursday approved a $76.2 billion budget plan, clearing the way for negotiations with the Senate as federal and state officials continued a feud over whether they are discussing $2.2 billion in health-care funding that plays a major role in budget deliberations.

A handful of Democrats joined Republicans to approve the House version of the spending plan in an 86-29 vote. The measure would cover the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The budget is significantly smaller than the Senate version, which would spend $80.4 billion. The Senate wants to spend $5 billion for a critical hospital-funding program, known as the Low Income Pool, and for an alternative to Medicaid expansion. The House has ruled out the Senate’s expansion plan and says it will only include the $2.2 billion in Low Income Pool, or LIP, funding once the federal government agrees to extend the program.

The LIP program, which is currently set to expire June 30, funnels additional money to hospitals and other health providers that serve large numbers of poor and uninsured patients. A large chunk of the money for the program comes from Washington.

The future of that funding has been thrown into question after state officials announced late Wednesday that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services suspended negotiations for at least two weeks. On Thursday, CMS flatly denied that.

“CMS remains in contact with state officials and continues to share information,” said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the agency, in a statement sent to reporters. “Senior officials from CMS will continue conversations with state officials about our shared goal of securing access to high quality health care coverage for low income Floridians.”

Questions swirled about whether the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration knew that the lead federal negotiator, Eliot Fishman, was due to take what is reportedly a long-planned trip to Israel in connection with Passover. But AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek issued a statement late Thursday standing by the state’s version of events.

“After months of discussions we found out that negotiators would not be available to continue to further discuss the LIP program. At this time, no date has been set for a future meeting,” she said.

The back-and-forth could make it difficult for lawmakers to finish the budget by the May 1 deadline for ending the legislative session on time. The last time legislators were forced into overtime to handle the state budget was in 2009, when the economic collapse sparked by a financial crisis forced the state to accept billions of dollars in temporary funding from the federal government.

Meanwhile, the House debate over the budget Thursday focused largely on the unwillingness of Republicans to accept a $2.8 billion Senate proposal to use Medicaid expansion money from the federal Affordable Health Care Act, better known as Obamacare, to help an estimated 800,000 lower-income Floridians purchase private insurance.

Democrats argued that Republicans were letting their partisan hatred of President Obama prevent them from doing the right thing.

“The refusal is solely based on whose idea it was. … We’re walking hand-in-hand with 800,000 souls to the altar of fringe politics,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach.

Republicans responded by highlighting budget priorities like a record amount of funding for public education on a per-student level and other politically popular aspects.

“At some point, you’ve got to vote for what’s in the budget and not what’s not in the budget,” said Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples.

House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, used militant language to criticize the Senate proposal.

“The great enemy is the power of the status quo,” he said.

Corcoran said the powers-that-be in the Capitol want Medicaid expansion, and the Senate can’t force the House to take up the issue.

“It takes two to tango,” Corcoran said, adding that his message to the Senate is “we’re not dancing.”

News Service of Florida executive editor Jim Saunders contributed to this report by Brandon Larrabee.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News