September 25th Disclaimer: The Florida Decides Healthcare Ballot Initiative has postponed their efforts until the 2028 General Election, citing petition roadblocks imposed by the passage of 2025 HB 1205. Our endorsement remains and is preserved in full below.

Most of us know that Trump’s Big B.S Bill will cut Medicaid and other healthcare spending for millions of Americans, especially for the elderly, children, and women. Unfortunately, based on current state programs and years of inaction by the Florida Legislature, our state and our people will be more negatively impacted than the rest of the country. Florida has long had some of the worst numbers in the nation for the number of children and the elderly who do not have full access to healthcare. Now, the situation is going to get worse.

Millions of Floridians are Losing Healthcare

Today, nearly 1.4 million Floridians are stuck in the Medicaid coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford insurance. The federal reconciliation law that passed this year in Washington still preserves the 90% federal match for to cover the costs for states that expand Medicaid, but it failed to extend enhancements to ACA tax subsidies for people accessing healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). This will dramatically drive-up ACA out of pocket premium costs, pushing millions more into this coverage gap.

Starting in January of 2026, when these tax credit enhancements expire, another 2.3 Floridians will lose their ACA coverage, meaning 3.7 million will fall into the Medicaid coverage gap. Florida will be hit harder than any other state by these changes. Tragically, experts predict 1 in 5 Floridians will be uninsured.

An Economic Crisis

Florida is already leaving over $4 billion in federal funds on the table every year. These are dollars Florida taxpayers have paid and should be coming to the state. Soon, that number will balloon to $10.5 billion annually because of the more than doubling of Floridians falling into the coverage gap. These tax dollars, collected from Floridians, will continue to help residents in New York and California— unless we take action. The loss of these funds threatens over 40,000 jobs.

Combine the threats to ACA premiums, the straight loss of Medicaid funds, over a decade of inaction of providing healthcare for children through state programs and we are looking at an upcoming healthcare disaster of epic proportions.

Everyone will be impacted

With millions losing health care coverage, more and more will get healthcare in the emergency rooms. This is the most expensive type of healthcare, and this drives up costs for every single Floridian. Experts are warning that the changes on the horizon will drive up healthcare premiums for everyone, including union members who have fought for employer sponsored group coverage at the bargaining table.

The Solution: Medicaid Expansion on the Ballot

One silver lining of Trump’s Big B.S Bill is that it maintained the federal Medicaid Expansion match (which brings fully twice as much into the state as the state spends.) This means that Medicaid Expansion is still the very best option to mitigate some of the damage on the horizon. There’s just one problem…the Florida legislature has repeatedly refused to do expand medicaid. Florida is just 1 of 10 states that has not updated its Medicaid eligibility requirements since 2013 because, since the days of Rick Scott—who plead the 5th over 75 times in the single biggest Medicare fraud cases in history—the Republican line has been “Medicaid expansion is Obamacare –> Obama is bad –> no to Medicaid expansion. For 15 years bills have been filed in Florida on Medicaid expansion, and there has never been a single hearing. Now, with these new threats on the move, it is time for the people to do it ourselves.

Medicaid Expansion Will:

• Provide Medicaid and healthcare services to 3.7 million Floridians, including parents of young children, women of childbearing age, part-time workers, seniors, caregivers, and people with chronic illnesses
• Save an estimated 7,000 lives a year, reduce maternal and infant mortality, improves breast cancer outcomes, and reduce opioid deaths
• Keep our $10.5 billion in federal taxes here at home
• Provide a huge boost to our economy by helping to attract and retain doctors and nurses
• Lowering costs for healthcare for all by promoting preventive care and reducing strain on emergency rooms
• Keep hospitals open, especially in rural communities where access to care is already limited

The Florida AFL-CIO Joins the Fight for Medicaid Expansion

Florida Decides Healthcare is a citizen’s initiative campaign to put Medicaid Expansion on the ballot as a Constitutional Amendment, and they are battling serious headwinds. For years, the Legislature has chipped away at the ability for Floridians to use the citizen’s initiative to make changes to the state constitution. They have made the process more and more difficult, stripping us of our constitutional right to direct democracy by a thousand paper cuts. In 2025, the Legislature passed the coup de grâce in the form of HB 1205. Wanting to finally make the initiative process impossible, the legislature imposed new onerous regulations, seemingly insurmountable processes and confusing procedures. But Florida Decides Healthcare is fighting on, and we are joining them.

With a long history of endorsing and fighting to pass bills during each session, we are now turning our attention to the ballot box. The Florida AFL-CIO unanimously adopted a resolution and is proud to fully endorse the Florida Decides Healthcare campaign. Working with a massive coalition of organizations, we are going to do everything we can to secure a victory. Let’s get ready to rumble!

In Solidarity

The AFL-CIO’s Department of People Who Work for a Living (DPWL) recently held a series of hearings across the country to provide a platform for working people to express their views on the current administration’s policies, the impact of those policies on their lives and what working people want from their government. The hearings found that working people are concerned about ongoing cuts to federal jobs, programs and services. Workers objected to the Trump administration’s callous disregard for career civil servants, many of them veterans, and the administration’s attacks on the institutions, programs and regulations that protect working people.

Get the report here.

The hearings featured testimony by workers and their representatives regarding the Trump administration’s attacks on the federal workforce. Witnesses expressed anger at insulting and dehumanizing characterizations of federal workers’ public service, and chaotic and lawless mass firings. They were also concerned that, due to staff reductions and other cuts to federal programs, public servants will not be able to serve their communities properly at agencies already struggling from high demand and limited resources. Witnesses cited how these cuts will have an outsized impact on seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and rural communities.

The hearings featured testimony by workers and their representatives on the wide-ranging assault by the Trump administration on workers’ rights and protections beyond the federal workforce. For example:

• The Trump administration has moved to gut the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and other critical worker safety agencies, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), putting workers’ lives at risk.
• A variety of moves by the Trump administration to curb worker power—for example, by stripping collective bargaining rights, abandoning project labor agreements and crippling the independence of agencies tasked with protecting workers’ rights—will have long-term downstream impacts that lower pay, benefits and other standards for all workers across the country.
• Frequent attacks on institutions, initiatives and services that have provided equal access protections to underrepresented populations will hinder efforts to combat systemic workplace discrimination, denying workers a fair shot at a job or advancement. The Trump administration’s mass deportation program, with its disregard for due process, threatens the constitutional rights of every worker and poses serious disruptions in key industries and local economies.
• Instead of taking a targeted, evidence-based approach to tariffs to protect domestic employment, the Trump administration has adopted a chaotic approach to tariffs. While some tariff actions taken to date have the potential to support workers, particularly in the steel, aluminum, auto and shipbuilding industries, the reckless, untargeted, on-again, off-again approach to other tariffs, including those with our most significant trading partner Canada, threaten to swamp the positive impacts.

Witnesses also expressed concern about the Trump tax plan and Congress’s approach to budget reconciliation. Medicaid and other government health programs support jobs and provide a crucial lifeline for communities and families across the country. The current budget resolution calls for dramatic cuts to these programs to give wealthy Americans a tax break. Workers expressed outrage that these potential cuts will cause millions of people—particularly from vulnerable groups—to lose their health care, and put further strain on an already overburdened health care system.

The DPWL hearings brought to light a growing frustration with the Trump administration’s anti- worker policies and the need for a new direction from the White House and Congress, with policies that support workers’ freedom, ensure fairness and provide security.

Get the report here.

Below you will find the current listing of state and federal candidates that the Florida AFL-CIO has endorsed in the 2022 elections.

Last month, the Florida Legislature jammed through legislation that would eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the taxing and governing entity for the Walt Disney World property. While the special session was supposed to focus on redistricting, legislation targeting the district and the Walt Disney Company was introduced the morning of session with no forewarning.

The legislation was filed as revenge for the private company’s decision to speak out against the Governor’s “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” While there are issues with Reedy Creek that should be examined and some changes could be made, this was a rushed proposal that simply wipes out the district, threatening thousands of union jobs and could lead to radical increases in property taxes for residents of Orange and Osceola counties.

With only a few hours’ notice, the Florida AFL-CIO was the ONLY organization that was able to quickly mobilize, educate legislators as to the perils of this move, and speak out against this attack on the workers of Central Florida in time.

For more information on the story and a look at the debate over the bill, check out our Special Session update. You can watch it here, as well as on our Facebook and YouTube pages.