OVERNIGHT HEALTHCARE: Florida governor heads to DC to settle ObamaCare fight

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) will arrive in D.C. on Wednesday to make another plea for the federal grant money he believes his state was denied because he chose not to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare.

Scott will meet with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Wednesday to press his case for the $1 billion in federal funding to support Florida hospitals that remains at stake.

“We hope HHS will reconsider LIP [low income pool] funding in Florida,” he wrote in a statement Tuesday. “It’s critical for us to get that information immediately so the legislature can construct a budget that best meets the needs of low income families during a special session.”

{mosads}The governor will be paying a visit to the Obama administration one week after filing a lawsuit claiming that the government’s funding denial was an effort to “coerce” Florida into expanding Medicaid. The governors of Texas and Kansas – also Republicans – filed amicus briefs in the case late Monday.

HHS did not immediately return request for comment about who requested the meeting and whether Burwell and Scott have previously spoken about the issue. Read more here.

THE HISPANIC HEALTH ‘PARADOX’: Hispanics in the United States are living an average of two years longer than white people, despite having less access to healthcare, according to the first national survey of the population’s health.

Hispanics have a mortality rate than is 25 percent lower than for the white population, though Hispanics are three times less likely to have health insurance and twice as likely to be in poverty, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“A lot of that — perhaps even most of it — is the lower smoking rate,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters Tuesday, adding that the numbers support a trend that has been called the “Hispanic paradox.”

Even though Hispanics are far more likely to live in poverty and to be uninsured, they are living longer and suffering less from some of the country’s most common diseases. Read more here.

CONGRESS CLOSER TO NIXING OBAMACARE MEDICARE BOARD: Momentum is growing for the GOP-led effort to repeal a Medicare cost-cutting board that is part of ObamaCare known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

The panel is the subject of intense political backlash – though it does not yet have a single member.

Over 500 organizations wrote to Congress on Tuesday urging them to eliminate the Medicare board, which had been blasted as a “death panel” by Republicans during the initial debate on ObamaCare.

The letter to Congress argues that because the board must achieve savings in a one-year timeframe, it will simply cut payments to providers rather than make long-term improvements to the programs’ efficiency. Read more here.

Wednesday’s schedule

The Alliance for Health Reform is holding a media briefing on 21st Century Cures at the National Press Club.

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics is holding a meeting to discuss how banks are beginning to use personal health data.

State by state

The number of abortion providers in Ohio has shrunk by half since 2011

Healthcare for those in U.S. illegally could cost California $740 million a year

Rural Indiana struggles to contend with HIV outbreak

Branstad seeks to drop abortion-payment role

What we’re reading

Some states are paying Medicaid enrollees to lose weight, quit smoking

Panera to drop at least 150 artificial ingredients from menu

States wasting millions by keeping ineligible recipients on ObamaCare’s Medicaid rolls, critics say

Medicare fraud trial scheduled for 2016 in case of Florida doctor tied to Menendez

What you might have missed from The Hill

Dems call for crackdown on insurers over birth control mandate

Supreme Court rejects inmate’s appeal for sex change surgery

Please send tips and comments to Sarah Ferris, sferris@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Peter Sullivan, psullivan@digital-staging.thehill.com. Follow on Twitter: @thehill, @sarahnferris, @PeterSullivan4