SARASOTA
The prospects of the Florida Legislature expanding medical marijuana usage or Medicaid do not look good, if four Republicans who represent most of Sarasota County are any indication.
Speaking to the Sarasota Republican Club on Thursday night, the lawmakers said there is little appetite in the Florida House to expand Medicaid, and most predicted bills to allow medical marijuana would fail.
A sample of marijuana is shown inside the dispensary at Collective Awakenings on Sept. 11, 2014 in Portland, Oregon. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Beth Nakamura)
On medical marijuana, Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, said legislators want to see how a law passed last year to allow children with epilepsy to have small amounts of medical marijuana works before allowing a more expanded law.
“I don’t think we will,” said Boyd when asked if legislators would pass a new medical marijuana law during the 60-day legislative session which begins on Tuesday.
Still, state Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said he will continue to push for passage of a bill to allow medical marijuana — in a non-smokeable form — for people suffering from eight specific diseases, including cancer, HIV and Parkinson’s.
Regarding Medicaid reform, Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota, told the approximately 100 people in the audience that House leaders have already said they aren’t doing Medicaid reform in the way it has been presented so far.
Steube, Boyd, and Rep. Julio Gonzalez, R-Venice, made similar comments, saying the long-term cost to the state has dissuaded the House from expanding Medicaid even though the federal government would absorb most of the cost in the near future.
Their comments come less than a week after Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, used a Sarasota speech to urge House members to reconsider opposition to expanding Medicaid. Galvano said with the federal government phasing out a program to cover low-income health care costs, state hospitals are facing a potential $2 billion cut. Sarasota Memorial stands to lose $12 million to help care for low-income people who don’t have insurance.
Expanding Medicaid would cover those reductions, said Galvano, who is the Senate majority leader.
But Boyd said the House is ready to look for other ways to cover those costs should those funds disappear, though he did not specify how that would happen.
