By: Eric Giunta | Posted: March 11, 2013 1:32 PM
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which calls itself the nation’s premier limited government grassroots organization, has issued a statement condemning last week’s decision by Florida’s two largest business advocates, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Industries of Florida (AIF), to endorse the state’s implementation of Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion.“It is unfortunate that both the Chamber and AIF would take positions on Medicaid expansion that are clearly not in the best interest of Florida’s business community,” said AFP-Florida’s state director Slade O’Brien. “Medicaid increases health care costs for the privately insured, which will increase costs for employers as well as billions of dollars in liabilities for all of Florida’s taxpayers. These two organizations seem driven by the limited interest of their health-care industry board members and not the policies that will help all of Florida’s business community.”The release refers to two polls — conducted by Florida’s two free-market think tanks — that have found that a majority of Florida voters oppose Medicaid expansion. The first poll, released by the James Madison Institute, showed that 63 percent of Floridians don’t trust the federal government to keep their funding level promises. The second poll, released by the Foundation for Government Accountability, reported the same findings, adding that voters are less likely to vote for their current elected official in the next election if they support expanding Medicaid.“Floridians demand that the Legislature reject Medicaid expansion and Florida’s businesses should be doing the same,” O’Brien continued. “Expanding this costly program would increase costs for everyone and force a million people into a failing system that provides subpar health care services. Last week the Florida House decided rightly to reject expansion. Hopefully, the Senate will follow their lead. This is not a decision that can be made in a vacuum — the future costs of expanding Medicaid today will have a devastating impact on the welfare of our state, our children and our grandchildren.”
