Florida officials sent a wide-ranging application Monday to the federal government for steering almost 3 million Medicaid patients into managed care, a major shift that has sparked heavy lobbying from critics who demand the Obama administration deny the move. But Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he was confident the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would approve the request, which supporters say could save the state more than $1 billion when fully in place. "I think that what we passed is going to be a model for Medicaid," said Scott, a former healthcare executive. "A Medicaid recipient ought to have choice, just like all of us have choice for what insurance we want to buy. I think that's positive." But he added, "We've got to make sure it's a program we can afford as taxpayers. I think what we did will do those two things."
