Federal health officials intrigued with FL alternative Medicaid plan

Medicaid expansion for one million low-income adults in Florida may technically be dead, after committees in both the House and Senate voted to kill it. And yet, chances for an alternative plan that would accomplish the same goals are looking up. On Wednesday, federal health officials signaled interest in seeing Florida's alternative plan, which is still just a gleam in the eye of a powerful state senator, as soon as the state has something in writing. And a report on how much it would cost the state to offer coverage to private plans to the newly insured estimated that it would cost 3 percent to 4 percent less than for the current Medicaid population.