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Florida’s Governor says he won’t drop a lawsuit against the federal government over hospital funding. As Matt Galka tells us, there’s already a deal in place this year, but lawmakers admit the issue isn’t going away.

The Florida House ran through the differences between the state budget they’re about to vote on, and the one they passed during regular session.

“We provide for 1 billion dollar low income pool as authorized by federal CMS,” said Rep. Matt Hudson (R-Naples).

The federal government was set to end a program known as the Low Income Pool, or LIP, that provides money to hospitals serving low income patients.  Expanding Medicaid was touted as a better option, but that forced the Governor to sue the Obama administration. The feds backed off and have agreed to provide reduced funds for the next two years.

Lawmakers had to use general revenue money from the budget in order to fill some of the healthcare gaps. Something the Governor didn’t want to do.

Senate President Andy Gardiner said using the taxpayer money helped keep some hospitals open.

“The reality is if the Senate, especially, had not been pushing for the Low Income Pool backfill of general revenue, Shands in Jacksonville and others would be potentially closing, so we feel very good that we were able to hold the line and get money into that program,” said Sen. Gardiner.

But it also cut into other things – like a bigger taxcut for Floridians – even though there was $300 million dollars worth of local projects added to the budget late in the process.  Senate Budget Chief Tom Lee says lawmakers tried to find a balance between hospital funding, tax cuts, and lawmaker priorities.

“With cuts and limited capital improvement programs back home, there is a pent up demand for some of those things,” said Sen. Lee.

So even though there is a deal in place and a budget vote looming, the Governor isn’t backing off his lawsuit against the feds. He wants a long term decision on the funding, and maintains there was an attempt to force the state to expand Medicaid.

Many around the capitol believe if no long term healthcare solution is found, lawmakers will be in a similar situation in two years – trying to scramble to fill hospital funding again when the federal program ends.