The Ed Show   |  January 08, 2013

Gov. Rick Scott inflates Medicaid expansion costs

Florida Governor Rick Scott has told his constituents that the cost of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would be too expensive, at $26 billion. But emails obtained by Health News Florida reveal that the state's chief economist warned his staff that the statistic was faulty. Nevertheless, Gov. Scott continues to use it. Ed Schultz explains how this isn't the first time Rick Scott has been caught in a health care scandal.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> and we are back. florida governor rick scott is dead set on preventing his state from participating in an expansion of benefits under the affordable care act . and he is willing to cook the books to get his way. to justify denying almost one million uninsured low income residents health care insurance coverage, scott is using republicans' favorite kind of math, the kind of math that just does not add up. scott says medicaid expansion would cost florida just too much, at least $26 billion over the next ten years. but a series of e-mails obtained by health news florida reveal on december 20th the state's chief economist warned the governor's staff his cost estimates were wrong. but scott keeps using them anyway. here is the governor on monday.

>> actually, no. the florida 's agency for health care administration put out their estimate of what the expansion would cost just for florida taxpayers. and it's over $26 billion.

>> well, let's break this down. the study scott is citing inflates the cost of expansion by 2,500%. would you like to get that return? we're not talking about small change here, folks. the number is so big because the agency didn't take into account the increase in federal funds . the federal government will pay the bulk of the cost for new medicaid eligibles if the state agrees to expand its program 100% between the years 2014 and 2016 , then down to 90% by 2020 . so in reality, those one million uninsured floridians would get coverage at a ten-year cost of about $1 billion to the state. but what do you expect? this is the same rick scott who ran a company at the time it was involved in the largest medicare fraud case in u.s. history , and he walked away with a $10 million severance package . pretty good deal, huh? the same rick scott who is pushing a medicaid privatization plan which would benefit his own health care company. tonight in our survey, i asked, should responsible gunowners speak up about gun legislation? 99% of you say yes. 1% of you say no.

>>> insurance giant aig is thinking about suing the federal government after the taxpayers build a them out. remember that story? pretty disturbing story of corporate greed. bloomberg view columnist william