On March 21, 2024, Paragon’s Research Paper “Resisting the Wave of Medicaid Expansion: Why Florida is Right” was referenced in the Miami Herald article “DeSantis signs healthcare modernization bills that do little to treat Florida uninsured.”
From the article:
Florida’s senior Republicans have their own medical experts, with a Paragon Health Institute report floating around the Florida Capitol backing up many of their policy arguments.
Titled “Resisting the Wave of Medicaid Expansion: Why Florida is Right,” the report largely cites as its evidence an October 2023 study regarding Medicaid expansion by the actuarial consulting firm Milliman that was created for the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which regulates Medicaid.
The Milliman study found that Medicaid expansion in Florida would cost between $78 billion and $176.2 billion over 10 years, with Florida paying up to $17.2 billion of that. The report also estimates that expansion enrollment would be much higher than anticipated, up to 2.5 million people by 2027.
“Medicaid expansion would have harmful health care effects in addition to the deleterious fiscal effects. Expansion would lead to great health care access challenges for existing enrollees,” states the report, written by Paragon President Brian Blase, a healthcare adviser to former President Donald Trump, according to Stat News, and former right-leaning Heritage Foundation data analyst Drew Gonshorowski.
