Congressman Joe Garcia Joins House Colleagues for Launch of State Medicaid Expansion Caucus
Congressmen Garcia and colleagues join SMEC to raise awareness on the budgetary, economic, health and moral reasons for states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act
For Immediate Release: July 23rd, 2014 Contact: Nicole Cueto (202) 480-7274
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a press conference today, Rep. Joe Garcia (FL-26) along with more than 30 House colleagues, announced the formation of the State Medicaid Expansion Caucus (SMEC).
Members of the Caucus come from the many of the states around the country where Governors turned back the federal dollars allotted to expand Medicaid, a provision of the Affordable Care Act. Members highlighted the need for recalcitrant states to expand Medicaid through floor speeches, op-eds, social media posts, discussions with their colleagues and constituents.
“When I hear stories from my district about hardworking men and women who cannot afford adequate coverage despite having a full time job, it shows that our neighbors, friends and community need the legislature to fix our state’s Medicare system, once and for all” exclaimed Garcia. “When people in South Florida, and around the state, need access to care, we cannot rely on emergency rooms serving as frontline health care providers for thousands of the uninsured, because our state neglected to expand this critical program.”
In the past, Governor Scott has publically supported health care expansion for those that fall into this gap. Yet, we are still waiting for both the Governor and the State Legislature to push for Florida to accept the $51 billion for health services offered by the federal government. Because of their inaction our taxpayer money is currently being spent on those in other states who have accepted these funds, rather than being spent on those greatly in need in our own state of Florida.
In Florida more than 760,000 citizens fall within the so called “coverage gap" – a category identifying uninsured residents who make too much to get Medicaid, but make too little money to receive healthcare under the Affordable Care Act exchanges. There are almost 800,000 Floridians that need health coverage, yet the State Legislature has refused to take $51 billion of taxpayer dollars to support healthy families.
In Florida Medicaid Expansion has been supported by business leaders, hospital executives, insurance companies and community leaders and organizations. Creating and supporting healthy families is nothing new in our state – Kidcare for instance does just that for those under 18. Florida legislature has introduced bipartisan options for expanding Medicaid through Private-Public partnerships much like the programs already in place for children, however they have not been able to pass them through the State House.
The members were joined by representatives from healthcare advocacy groups, including: Families USA; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Coalition on Human Needs; the Catholic Health Association of the United States; and the Georgetown Center for Children and Families.
For more, go to http://facebook.com/medicaidexpansioncaucus.
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