Health News Florida has reported that Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration may widen the state's Medicaid-reform pilot program, including 19 more counties to save more than $58 million by requiring Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in managed-care plans.

"Such an expansion could affect 375,000 people and save $58.7 million during the upcoming fiscal year. Managed-care supporters say expanding the pilot program would help reduce fraud and hold down spiraling Medicaid costs", it posted.

While some legislators voted in favor of the explanation of the reform plan, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who voted against the experiment, now reveals that he is open to discussing an expansion. Most of the 650,000 Medicaid recipients in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties would be affected.

However, critics of the reform reflected it should be stopped, not expanded. Some patients and advocates have long complained that it's cumbersome to search for doctors who accept HMOs in reform, and that the plans hardly include all of a patient's needs and drugs.

Also, numerous big HMOs dropped out of the reform as according to them the profits were low.

In Medicaid, the state has speculated to pay $17.9 billion for the 2.6 million recipients - one out of every seven residents - and an 11 percent rise from the previous year. Those numbers have led to the effort to extend the pilot program.