Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis’s running mate Jeanette Nuñez says they’ll release their healthcare platform in the next few days. At a campaign stop in Orlando today details were scarce but one thing’s certain- it won’t include Medicaid expansion.
Nuñez says Medicaid expansion would turn Florida’s healthcare into a single payer system, driving up costs and driving down quality of care. Instead she says running-mate Ron DeSantis will roll out a new healthcare platform which will allow people to choose from a variety of different options.
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“This allows for healthy competition because we all know that when there’s competition between plans and payers because it’s going to drive down cost for our low income payers."
Nuñez says this will also benefit some of the highest risk patient populations.
"Our patients and our residents here in Florida have suffered from poor quality and very little access. And so we want to make sure we protect our senior citizens, our disabled community and our pregnant moms and children.”
But Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum says these patients have the most to lose without Medicaid expansion. He says it’s only way to protect patients with pre-existing conditions from higher premiums if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
He says if Obamacare is repealed, they could suffer from higher premiums or coverage denial.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that more than 3 million non-elderly patients in the state have pre-existing conditions.
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