Miami Herald : Florida hospitals push for Medicaid expansion : they will be hit hard if the state does not expand Medicaid under ObamaCare because hospitals will lose federal funding they've been relying on to care for uninsured patients

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Florida Hospitals would lose a lot of Money if the Governor and Legislature deny the Medicaid Expansion that is part of ObamaCare. There will be a big hole in the Hospital Finances and the State of Florida won't fill it.

The Miami Herald
Florida hospitals push for Medicaid expansion
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press
February 19, 2013


Florida hospitals push for Medicaid expansion


Some excerpts :

 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Florida hospital executives warned they will be hit hard if the state does not expand Medicaid coverage under the federal health overhaul because hospitals will lose federal funding they've been relying on to care for uninsured patients. Florida hospitals spent more than $2.8 billion caring for uninsured patients in 2011, hospital officials said Monday.

The Affordable Care Act will end some major federal funding streams to hospitals that cover large numbers of uninsured patients because the law assumes those patients will have insurance through Medicaid expansion or through state online health exchanges. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid expansion is optional for states, leaving Florida hospitals concerned they will be on the hook for huge bills with less money to pay for them than in the past.

"If Florida doesn't expand Medicaid, we're going to have the money taken out of one pocket, we just won't get it put back in the other," Tommy Inzina, chief administrative officer at BayCare Health System, said at a House meeting in Tallahassee on Monday.

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