PolitiFact Florida: Fact-Checking Claims On Medicaid Expansion
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Charlie Crist has berated Gov. Rick Scott for not accepting federal dollars to expand Medicaid; the state and federally funded program that provides medical care to the poor.
"We deserve to have a governor who will make sure we get Medicaid expansion money," Crist said during his second debate with Scott. "Medicaid expansion is important to a million of our fellow Floridians who are not getting the medical care they deserve and more importantly that they need."
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Scott counters that Crist is a flip-flopper on Medicaid expansion. He said Crist had the chance to expand it when he was governor, but chose not to.
"Charlie was governor, he was in the governor's office and there was a legislative session going on when Obamacare passed," Scott said. "Did he go to the legislature and say, 'let's pass this, it's a good idea?' No."
Amy Sherman of PolitiFact said it was too early for Crist to have taken action on expanding Medicaid.
"It was premature at that point, because in 2010 Medicaid expansion wasn't going to happen for four years," Sherman said.
Also, Florida's Republican controlled legislature was against the Affordable Care Act back then, and Florida was fighting the law in the courts. Any effort by Crist to expand Medicaid would have gone nowhere.
For those reasons, PolitiFact Florida rates Scott's claim that "Charlie Crist could have expanded Medicaid after the health care law passed but didn't" to be MOSTLY FALSE.
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