Miami Herald

By: Elizabeth Koh and Kirby Wilson

Even if Democrats take back the governor’s mansion, don’t expect Medicaid expansion — let alone Medicare for all — in Florida any time soon.

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Democrats hope to seize on the activist energy around the issue, holding rallies in Florida and spotlighting what they say are Republican efforts to deny coverage for vulnerable Americans. Those efforts have, at times, centered on Medicaid, which varies from state to state but largely covers those who are too poor or sick to afford health insurance. Joan Alker, a research professor who runs Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said the program is more popular now than it was under President Barack Obama, who worked to expand it. For example, Alker said one of the reasons Republicans failed to pass in the summer of 2017 its own American Health Care Act, which would have repealed Obama’s Affordable Care Act, was because of the public outrage over the deep Medicaid cuts in that bill.

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