Florida's government is reportedly astonished to receive word that the Medicaid Low Income Pool (LIP) will be going away soon. This, of course, strains credulity in light of the fact that this Florida Medicaid Section 1115 waiver was renewed for only a one year term last time out and accompanied by the request that Florida seek advice on how to serve its low income population once LIP went away.
Florida commissioned the study and received the advice that the best response to LIP's sunset would be Medicaid Expansion. Memory is a funny thing.
Now, Florida's Governor Rick Scott threatens CMS with litigation over the "coercive" termination of a an expressly time limited Medicaid Section 1115 waiver.
This seems like a potentially huge gamble on which way the definition of "coercion" will break when applied to voluntary time-limited Section 1115 waivers. When is a pilot project waiver not a pilot project waiver at all but a permanent commitment to a funding stream of overwhelmingly federal Medicaid dollars to a state that, simultaneously, purports to disdain Medicaid and want it all?
Missouri State of Mind 