TALLAHASSEE The Florida House and Senate rolled out vastly different health care spending plans Thursday, putting the two chambers on a collision course over the state's $77 billion budget.

The dueling health care proposals are $5 billion apart more than the entire budget for the state of Vermont.

The Senate version includes $2.8 billion in federal money to pay for expanded health care coverage, something the House adamantly opposes. It also includes a $2.2 billion program known as the Low Income Pool (or LIP) that helps hospitals treat uninsured, under-insured and Medicaid patients.

Reaching consensus on the two issues will be difficult and could require an extended or special legislative session. For now, leaders in both chambers are holding firm.

"Those are the Senate's priorities," Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ren Garca, R-Hialeah, said Thursday.

The stakes are high. The final budget could expand coverage to nearly 1 million poor Floridians or result in dramatic cuts to safety-net hospitals across the state.

Building the health care budget is more complicated than usual this year because the LIP program is set to end on June 30. The federal government has said it may be willing to approve a replacement program, but no deal has been reached.

There's also the issue of Medicaid expansion, a provision of the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

For the past two years, House Republicans have rejected billions of federal dollars to extend health care coverage to the poor. The Senate is hoping to tap into the money this year, saying it would help hospitals pay for uncompensated care if LIP disappears.

The Senate's proposed $35.2 billion health care budget includes $2.2 billion in LIP money. It also includes a LIP replacement program that would distribute the money to all hospitals based on the services they provide, rather than targeting a few select hospitals.

View post:

Florida House, Senate clash over health care spending