Florida Failure: Million Dollar Obamacare Alternative and No One Signs Up
— February 26, 2015
Florida Republicans have fought the Affordable Care Act tooth and nail. Whether over medicaid expansion or just accepting the law of the land, the GOP in Florida is determined to oppose Obamacare. One of the party’s efforts to undermine the national healthcare law centered on the GOP’s ability to provide an effective alternative, should they get their way and force the Affordable Care Act to go belly-up.
They failed.
Florida legislators established a rival marketplace to the federal healthcare exchange to try and compete with it and prevent Floridians from getting their insurance through the ACA. This effort, spearheaded by Sen. Marco Rubio came with a price tag of more than $800,000.
Through the GOP’s unwillingness to work with the federal government, more than 750,000 Floridians have missed out on their ability to gain health insurance.
The GOP-created Florida exchange, called Florida Health Choices, offered were so horrible that enrollment failed to even breach 100 users. That’s a far cry from the 750,000 still needing health insurance.
Republicans have tried to offer the Affordable Care Act as a scapegoat for the failure noting that they had hoped to see more activity but the presence of a competitor that can so drastically undercut them has produced a real problem they aren’t able to overcome.
Justin Lane is a contributor to Ring of Fire. Email him at ROFJLane@gmail.com. Follow at Twitter @liberalfire
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