State Senator Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach) Issues Statement on McCollum's Decision to Block Health Care Reform in Florida

“Today, AG McCollum showed he is tone deaf to the reality we have nearly four million uninsured Floridians, 800,000 of which are children. His decision to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care reform bill that is working its way through the Congress is shortsighted and nothing more than rank demagoguery.

“We live in a state with a full-blown health care crisis. No state (other than Texas) has a higher percentage of uninsured and yet we see more of the same politics as usual from AG McCollum. Though I am outraged by AG McCollum's decision, I am not surprised. AG McCollum has a pattern of blocking health care. He is spending millions to defend the state’s failure to provide medical and dental care to poor and disabled children (a suit that he should have settled years ago).

“General McCollum's decision to use his office to investigate ways to block health insurance reform is wrongheaded and will cost millions and millions of dollars in a legal battle that is unwarranted. We need solutions to our health care crisis, not obstructions!”