A group of lawmakers want Gov. Rick Scott to let conscience be his guide over whether 1.2 million low-income people in Florida should get health insurance under an expansion of Medicaid. 
 
“Governor, last year you said your conscience wouldn't allow you to stand in the way of an expansion,” the lawmakers wrote Scott in a letter today. “We hope your conscience now will compel you to at least ask legislators to find a way to get this done.”
 
The letter is signed by Democratic members of Florida’s congressional delegation expressing their disappointment that Scott's recently-released state budget plan ignores an expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. 
 
The federal lawmakers want the governor to press the Legislature to approve a means of expanding Medicaid to Florida's poor.

The state's senior U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was joined on the letter urging Scott to renew his previous commitment to Medicaid expansion by U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Joe Garcia, Alan Grayson, Alcee Hastings, Patrick Murphy, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Frederica Wilson.
 
Florida’s refusal so far to expand Medicaid would deny health coverage under the program to more than 1.2 million Floridians.  And the $51 million meant for the Sunshine State would go to fund another state’s Medicaid program. The state would also lose out on an estimated 120,000 private-sector jobs that could have been created as a result of expansion.
 
Following is a copy of the lawmakers' letter:

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