Florida Gov. Scott exaggerates cost of Medicaid expansion, projections show
WASHINGTON While refusing to implement "Obamacare," Gov. Rick Scott has greatly exaggerated the state's projected cost for expanding Medicaid to explain why Florida cannot afford to cover nearly two million more low-income residents by the end of the decade.
Scott said the state refuses to sacrifice its job creation, economic growth, quality education and low cost of living by spending $1.9 billion to expand Medicaid under the new health-care law citing a price that is nearly double state and federal projections.
"Florida will opt out of spending approximately $1.9 billion more taxpayer dollars required to implement a massive entitlement expansion of the Medicaid program," the governor's office said
"We'll have to raise our taxes," the governor said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday. "Right now you have a choice in Florida government. It's Medicaid, it's education or it's prisons. And Medicaid has been growing at three-and-a-half times our general revenue. So that has made it very difficult to fund our education."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/fl-scott-inflates-obamacare-cost-20120702,0,3551634.story