TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday dropped a lawsuit against the Obama administration over funding for hospitals and other health-care providers that serve large numbers of poor and uninsured patients.
Scott withdrew the lawsuit after federal officials and the state reached an agreement "in principle" about the Low Income Pool, or LIP, program.
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The agreement, outlined Tuesday in a letter from federal official Vikki Wachino to state Medicaid director Justin Senior, settled a months-long dispute about the size of the program and how money will be allocated to hospitals and other health providers.
The LIP program, which has totaled $2.2 billion during the current fiscal year, had been scheduled to expire at the end of June. Under the agreement, LIP funding will be set at $1 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and will drop to $608 million a year later.
The lawsuit, filed by Scott this spring, accused the Obama administration of unconstitutionally linking the LIP program with an expansion of Medicaid, something the governor and Republican House leaders strongly oppose. Scott took credit for the LIP agreement in a press release Thursday.
"Because of this great victory, we have decided to dismiss our lawsuit against the Obama administration for attempting to coerce Florida into expanding Obamacare," Scott said.