AARP Florida: A new day for health coverage of modest means; state agencies must step up, state House leaders should expand coverage

Tallahassee, Fla.  – AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson issued this statement Friday in reaction to the federal Health and Human Services’ Department decision to approve a state plan to transfer all Florida Medicaid patients needing acute health care into managed-care plans:   

"For better or worse, it is a new day for this important health-coverage program in Florida.  It's time for state agencies to step up and prove that this new system will deliver the improvements in access to care, quality of care and coordination of care that they have claimed it would."
"It also is time for state House leaders abandon their tired rhetoric that Medicaid is a broken system.  They created the Medicaid system that Florida now has.  They must accept responsibility for it.  And they should move swiftly now to accept $51 billion of our own federal tax dollars over the next 10 years to expand health coverage for more than 1 million uninsured Floridians of modest means, including up to 260,000 Floridians age 50-64 who are struggling to find affordable health coverage.  Expanding health coverage will save lives, create jobs, save money for Florida businesses and boost Florida's economy."

"There is no excuse left for delay."