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Republican leaders in the Florida Senate offered up a revamped health care proposal Tuesday in an effort to end a budget stalemate that threatens to shut down state government, but the proposal was immediately rejected by Gov. Rick Scott and House GOP leaders. Legislators are scheduled to return to the state Capitol next week for a 20-day special session where they are expected to pass a new state budget. (Fineout, 5/26)

The state Senate proposed an amendment Tuesday to it plan to use federal Medicaid expansion money to provide health care to 800,000 uninsured Floridians through health exchanges .... But the plan did little to win over House GOP leaders or [Gov. Rick] Scott. The proposed changes to the Senate plan, which is termed the Florida Health Insurance Exchange [FHIX], would eliminate an earlier proposal to enroll the uninsured in Florida’s Medicaid system. Those 800,000 would receive health care coverage through exchanges, with Medicaid expansion money used to cover the cost. (Dixon, 5/26)

The revised bill addresses a number of House criticisms of the Senate's proposal. The changes to the Senate health care plan (formerly SB 7044 and now called SB 2A) include eliminating a requirement that patients in the Senate FHIX plan (Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange) must first enroll in a Medicaid managed care plan for six months; revises enrollees' searches for jobs to be through the state workforce portal, known as Career Source; gives patients the option of enrolling in health care plans available on a federal health care exchange; and prohibits the state from seeking a federal waiver to implement FHIX that varies significantly from the legislation. (Bousquet, 5/26)

Tensions continued to mount Tuesday between Gov. Rick Scott and the Senate as the governor blasted a Senate compromise and the governor’s Agency for Health Care administration issued a letter to the federal government suggesting that the state would not lose the $1 billion in federal money to reimburse hospitals for serving the uninsured under the low income pool as legislators previously suggested. (Klas, 5/26)