Governor Rick Scott has announced that Florida will not participate in Medicaid expansion on the state level, but Hillsborough County may have a backup plan.
They already have a free health care program for poor residents, established 20 years ago. It's paid for with a half cent sales tax.
Donna Petersen is dean of the USF College of Public Health. She says ten thousand residents are already enrolled in the county's health care plan.
"If you believe that providing people preventative acute and maybe even chronic disease managed health care benefits the entire society, then that's an investment well worth making," She says.
It's thought that more than 40,000 uninsured residents are eligible for the program.
