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The Obama administration snubbed Florida's proposal to extend federal funds for hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients, a dispute that has paralyzed the state budget. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell gave Gov. Rick Scott the news when she met with him in Washington on Wednesday. The Republican governor wants the administration to extend $1 billion in low-income pool funds for hospitals, but the federal government wants Florida to expand Medicaid, arguing its more efficient to give people insurance than to pay hospitals for caring for the uninsured retroactively. (Kennedy and Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/6)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s high-stakes visit to Washington Wednesday to persuade the Obama administration to keep the federal government’s $1 billion in annual funding for hospital care of the poor produced no breakthrough. 'We had a good conversation … but we don’t have a resolution,' the Republican governor told reporters after an hour-long meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. (Galewtiz, 5/6)

Gov. Rick Scott's meeting Wednesday with the Obama administration's top health care official failed to resolve a funding standoff, prompting him to say he will prepare an emergency "base" budget to keep state government operating after June 30. "We had a good conversation . . . but we don't have a resolution," Scott said after talking about an hour with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell about renewing a $2.2 billion hospital funding program. HHS has told Florida the Low Income Pool, or LIP, is being phased out, and the government wants the state to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 800,000 uninsured residents. The agency said Wednesday that Scott's alternative proposal "falls short." (Leary, 5/6)

Florida Governor Rick Scott is once again suing President Barack Obama and his health secretary, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, over Obamacare. That didn’t stop the Republican from coming to Washington today with his palm out, trying to salvage more than $1 billion in hospital funding that’s at the center of his lawsuit. “This program shouldn’t be going away,” Scott told reporters Wednesday after meeting with Burwell at her agency’s headquarters. “The federal government shouldn’t be trying to force us to expand Obamacare.” (Olorunnipa, 5/6)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott came to Washington to demand that the Obama administration drop its threat to cut off billions of dollars in special funding for Florida hospitals — a fight that’s gotten wrapped up into the larger battle over Florida’s refusal to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. (Pradhan, 5/6)

The standoff also has implications for eight other states, including Texas, which draw billions of dollars from the same pool of hospital funds. And like Florida, several are also refusing to expand Medicaid coverage. Republican leaders in those states are adamant about not expecting any federal money tied to Obama's Affordable Care Act. ... The Obama administration also noted in its statement that Florida and other states have known for well over a year that the funds were ending and Florida was granted an extension last year on the condition it seek alternative funding. It's unlikely the federal government will drop the hospital funds entirely, but the Obama administration has been clear that those states will get less funding because the Obama administration will not pay for health care for low-income individuals that would be covered in a Medicaid expansion. (Kennedy, 5/7)

Another Medicaid expansion effort died Wednesday at the hands of a state Senate panel. Voting largely along party lines, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 5-3 to defer action on a measure calling for a statewide vote on the issue. Senate Bill 10 sought to amend the Louisiana Constitution to require the state health agency to expand state Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That’s $27,700 for a family of three. (Shuler, 5/7)

The vote was 5-3 Wednesday against the proposal (Senate Bill 10) by Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans. Peterson's constitutional amendment would have bypassed the governor's desk and allowed the state's voters to decide on the expansion. Supporters of the Medicaid expansion say it would extend health insurance coverage to nearly 300,000 working poor, with the federal government picking up nearly all the cost. They also say it would help health care providers burdened with uninsured patients. (5/6)