Scott made exception to his fight for Obamacare repeal by supporting Medicaid expansion

When Rick Scott entered his first race for governor in 2010, he was best-known for being a millionaire health care executive fighting President Barack Obama's health care law.

Scott said then he would join efforts to repeal the health care law, including supporting a constitutional amendment that "prohibits the federal government from imposing President Obama's individual mandate, to protect Floridians' freedom to control their health care choices."

When the Florida Legislature succeeded in 2011 in placing such a constitutional amendment on the ballot, PolitiFact Florida awarded Scott a Promise Kept. But the amendment didn't get the 60 percent support, so it failed.

And more importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the health care law. Scott continued to fight the law, but his chances of success dwindled after Obama won re-election, so we rated this promise a Compromise.

There have been a couple of significant developments since that time.

In February 2013, Scott summoned the media to the governor's mansion, where he announced that he still opposed setting up a state exchange but supported a three-year Medicaid expansion. Scott said that a three-year expansion would allow the state to determine if it was working before deciding whether to re-authorize it.

"On the question of Medicaid expansion, there are no perfect options. To be clear, our options are either having Floridians pay to fund this program in other states while denying health care to our citizens, or using federal funding to help some of the poorest in our state with the Medicaid program as we explore other health care reforms," he said, adding, "While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost of new people in Medicaid, I cannot, in good conscience, deny the uninsured access to care."

Though Scott supported the Medicaid expansion, he made it clear it wasn't one of his legislative priorities and didn't push for it. The Legislature ended up rejecting the expansion, which included $51 billion in federal dollars over 10 years. PolitiFact Florida gave Scott a Full Flop for his position on Medicaid expansion. Since then, he has continued to say he supports such an expansion.

"While they spend 100 percent, I'm not going to stand in the way of the federal government doing something," he told the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times a couple of weeks before his Aug. 26 primary. "What I'm not willing to do is put Florida taxpayers on the hook. ... I've been very consistent and let's all remember that Obamacare is an absolute bad bill for patients, for families, for employers, for employees."

We asked Scott spokesman John Tupps if he could point to other examples of Scott fighting the health care law, and he pointed to Scott's opposition to a rate cut for Medicare Advantage that the federal government proposed in February 2014. In April, the federal government backed off of its plan for cuts in response to opposition.

Medicare Advantage costs do relate to the health care law, because that law reduces payments to private insurers to bring down future costs. President George W. Bush started Medicare Advantage, a richer plan, in hopes the increased competition would reduce costs. But those plans are actually costlier than traditional Medicare.

For the most part, Scott has remained a critic of the health care law and continues to fight it. The one exception is Scott's support for Medicaid expansion -- but he never used his power of the bully pulpit to convince the Legislature to pass it.

Scott's chances of repealing the law dimmed part way through his term, and he failed to get the constitutional amendment passed.

Overall, we continue to rate this promise Compromise.