Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) on Monday reversed his position on Medicaid for the second time in two years, announcing that he will not support expansion of the public insurance that would give health coverage to more than 800,000 low-income Floridians.

Scott, amid tense budget negotiations in the state legislature, released a brief statement Monday saying he would no longer pursue federal dollars to support expansion, citing a decision by the federal government to stop funding a health program for low-income people in Florida.

The LIP, or Low-Income Pool, is a program funded by the federal government that reimburses Florida hospitals for treating uninsured patients.

“We still have several weeks left for budget negotiations; however, given that the federal government said they would not fund the federal LIP program to the level it is funded today, it would be hard to understand how the state could take on even more federal programs that [the federal government] could scale back or walk away from,” Scott said, reported by the Associated Press.

That funding agreement ends in June, and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) told Florida officials it may not continue to give money to a program delivering care to people who would be insured by Medicaid if it were expanded in the state, as many states have under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

If the CMS decides not to fund the LIP program, Florida could face a $1 billion budget hole as early as this summer. Unclear is whether the federal government will now fund the LIP program in light of Scott’s anti-Medicaid stance, which could be a move in a game of political chicken between Scott and the Obama Administration to decide how low-income people should receive health insurance.

Scott, who campaigned for governor running TV ads decrying the ACA and its plan for Medicaid expansion, came out in support of expansion in early 2013. In an emotional speech that mentioned the death of his mother, Scott called expansion “common sense” and told the country that he “cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care.”

With the nominal support of the governor, the state senate this year introduced a proposal to use federal Medicaid dollars toward an alternative to expansion. SB 7044, introduced and passed in March by the committee on health policy, would have expanded private insurance coverage to certain adults with incomes between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Following Scott’s flip-flop on Monday, the fate of the bill, which would have likely faced intense scrutiny in Florida’s GOP-led house even with Scott’s support, is unclear.

Expanding Medicaid would make Florida the 30th state, including D.C., to do so. The Sunshine State would also be the second-largest state to expand the program, after California.

Scott has this year indicated his willingness to leave other low-income Floridians without health insurance, telling Politico that he would not take action if the U.S. Supreme Court guts the Affordable Care Act. Up for debate by the Court is whether states with federally-run health insurance exchanges can be mandated to offer health plan subsidies.

Scott told Politico that he would essentially do nothing if the Roberts Court overturned the subsidies. “This is a federal program, it’s a federal problem,” he said.

Florida has 1.6 million people enrolled in ACA plans, more than any other state in the country, with nine in ten of those people receiving subsidies.