Gov. Rick Scott defended his firm stance against Obamacare and the push for Florida’s universities to prepare students for a more technological future in an address to editors and publishers of the still influential but struggling newspaper industry on Friday.

He also noted the stagnant national jobs numbers released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, which was expected to show employers added about 125,000 jobs for the month, but instead picked up 80,000.

“It will be nice when we get below the national average, because 18 months ago when I took office we were the highest in the country,” Scott told newspaper editors and publishers from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana at the opening of the Southeastern Press Convention at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin.  

Florida’s unemployment has dropped from 11.9 percent in January 2011 to 8.6 percent in May.

The June numbers for Florida will be released July 20.

Scott also continued his promotion of Florida, pointing to the elimination of regulations and permitting, the growth of jobs, return of tourism from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico -- and he joked about the availability of homes that are “cheaper than before.”

On the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Scott said people need to focus on the cost, not the expansion of insurance coverage. While critics contend the state’s resistance to the federal health-care law will hurt the poor and Florida’s ability to create jobs, Scott said the federal system will reduce options and drive up costs.

“Step one is choice. You, as an individual, ought to have the right to choose the health care policy you want, not the policy of some third party the government tells you you have to buy,” Scott said.

Scott has said that if Obamacare isn’t repealed before Jan. 1, 2014, Florida will join other states in opting out of the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act and won't set up insurance exchanges.

Pressed that Mississippi is moving forward with the health care exchanges, with government leaders in the know saying the market place will reduce prices like consumers shopping on Travelocity, Scott countered that eventually the government will dictate the rules.

“The problem with exchanges is that the government is going to dictate the types of policies,” said Scott, a health care executive before becoming a politician. “Governments don’t do a good job deciding what consumers want. They require people to buy things they don’t need. There will be policies on there that you may not want to buy but that you’ll be forced to buy.”

As for his continued effort to direct more students toward science, technology, engineering and math degrees, Scott repeated his desire to rank the state’s universities based upon their ability to find students jobs in their field.

“My focus is to get our universities to really look at how they’re spending their money,” Scott said.



Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.