So what changed? Mitt Romney lost Florida, and the presidency, in the 2012 election. After that, Scott softened a little, saying, "Just saying 'no' is not an answer" to Obamacare in November. While conservative governors might find the law ideologically offensive, it's hard to resist the cold hard cash the federal government promises with the law. A recent study by expansion advocates said earlier this month that the Medicaid expansion would would create 71,300 jobs in Florida and pump $8.9 billion into the state's economy. (Another study put the new jobs number at 56,000.) Ohio's John Kasich even sounded a little like a bleeding heart in his State of the State address, saying the expansion would free up money to help the needy. "I can’t look at the disabled, I can’t look at the poor, I can’t look at the mentally ill, I can’t look at the addicted and think we ought to ignore them," Kasich said. "For those who live in the shadows of life, for those who are the least among us, I will not accept the fact that the most vulnerable in our state should be ignored. We can help them." Scott, in his announcement Wednesday, talked about his mom, and said, "We also have to be sensitive to the poorest and weakest among us who struggle to afford high-quality health care. ... It is not a white flag of surrender to government health care."

The Medicaid expansion would cover people making up to 138 percent of the poverty line. The expansion is funded by the federal government for the first three years, after that, federal funding drops to 90 percent. When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare last summer, it ruled that it was unconstitutional for the law to compel states to expand Medicaid or lose federal funds. The Advisory Board Company posts this map of where states stand on the Medicaid expansion:





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