The state of Florida has not exactly been warm and welcoming to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- better known as Obamacare.
Florida was part of the lawsuit seeking to overturn Obamacare. That's the case in which the ACA was upheld by the Supreme Court.
But Democrats are now charging that Florida's dragging its feet on Obamacare, which could potentially cost Floridians when it comes to their health insurance rates.
U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch recently wrote in a letter signed by all 10 of the Florida’s Democratic representatives that Florida lawmakers have left the state vulnerable to unreasonably high insurance premiums by stripping Florida of its ability to review rates for the ACA’s rollout.
And, PolitiFact's Angie Holan says their fact check finds this is true.
"We're talking about the insurance market for those people who have to go out and buy health insurance on their own," Holan explained. "And the federal health care law said state would be able to tell insurance companies no if the rates are two high."
But that is not how it's going to work in Florida.
According to Holan, "Earlier this year the Florida legislature got into this and said we don't know enough about the law and it's very complex so we're just going to let the federal government take care of denying excessive rate increases. Well, the problem with that is the federal government doesn't have the legal authority to do that. So, Deutch's complaint with the state is right. They did say we're not going to refuse excessive rate increases and they put that into effect, in law, for two years."
Politifact also did some fact checking on a recent statement on Obamacare from Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.
On Fox T-V's Sean Hannity show, Rubio said under Obamacare, people who "have a doctor they’ve been seeing for the last 15 or 20 years, they won’t be able to keep going to that doctor."
PolitiFact's ruling on that? Mostly false.
Holan said, "it all comes down to if your insurance plan changes, you may have to go and see a different doctor. Rubio's statement doesn't apply to people on Medicare. They should see any big changes. The experts say the employer-provided plans most people get through work, those people shouldn't see big changes. The people who might see big changes are people who have to go out and buy insurance on their own. But, overall, this idea that Obamacare forces people out of seeing specific doctors, it's misleading and we rated it mostly false."
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