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Fishkind Commentary: Federal Funds For FL’s Indigent Health Care Dry Up This Year, Unless…

90.7's economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind, President of Fishkind and Associates
90.7's economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind, President of Fishkind and Associates

Florida may lose more than a billion dollars in annual federal funding that’s been paying for indigent care at public and private hospitals. The money came from a federal program called the Low Income Pool, or LIP. But the LIP is being phased out in favor of the Affordable Care Act, which Florida rejected.

Economic analyst Hank Fishkind tells 90.7’s Nicole Creston there may be an alternative to both LIP and the ACA, but Florida’s hospitals, lawmakers, and business community all have to work together.

Fishkind calls the loss an unintended consequence of the state’s decision to opt out of Obamacare, and to turn down federal dollars that would’ve expanded Medicaid coverage to nearly a million more Floridians.

Nicole came to Central Florida to attend Rollins College and started working for Orlando’s ABC News Radio affiliate shortly after graduation. She joined WMFE in 2010. As a field reporter, news anchor and radio show host in the City Beautiful, she has covered everything from local arts to national elections, from extraordinary hurricanes to historic space flights, from the people and procedures of Florida’s justice system to the changing face of the state’s economy.