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Fishkind Conversations: Medicaid Expansion Would Benefit Florida's Coffers As Well As Its People

Hank Fishkind. Photo: Matthew Peddie, WMFE
Hank Fishkind. Photo: Matthew Peddie, WMFE

The $1.9 trillion-dollar America Rescue Plan – or ARP – has new incentives for states to expand their Medicaid programs. The federal government will pay nearly 100 percent of the expansion cost for two years, then 90 percent ever year, providing health insurance for 800,000 Floridians who now have none.

Governor Ron DeSantis and state Republican leaders remain opposed, but economic analyst Dr. Hank Fishkind tells WMFE’s Nicole Darden Creston that Medicaid expansion would boost Florida’s economy.

Click Play Audio to hear their conversation.

Nicole came to Central Florida to attend Rollins College and started working for Orlando’s ABC News Radio affiliate shortly after graduation. She joined Central Florida Public Media 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.