...his subordinates had made case-by-case decisions about whether particular grants advanced the state’s efforts to remake its Medicaid program. This year, Mr. Scott and the Legislature enacted Florida’s own law directing most recipients into managed care plans.
*THIS* is all he cares about. He doesn't care about the poor, he just cares about
making money for his own benefit. That election did cost him 70mil, remember?
Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is one of the most vocal opponents of the Affordable Care Act, rejecting millions of dollars in federal grants and failing to implement key infrastructure that could help lower the state’s ballooning uninsurance rate and control costs.
Now, a new report from the Florida Health Care Insurance Advisory Board finds that the state’s health care picture is only getting bleaker: enrollment in health insurance has dropped for the fifth straight year in a row, from 4.5 million in 2006 to 3.7 million in 2010:
The drop last year stemmed primarily from losses in the in-state small-group market, which saw enrollment decline by almost 19 percent. The individual market saw a 3 percent increase in 2010. But the report, which is updated annually, said the uptick in individual coverage is linked to the drop in the small-group market. “Because of the natural link between small business coverage and individual coverage, enrollment gains in the individual market can be reflective of a somewhat weakening small group market as smaller employers drop coverage,” the report said.
The 2010 Census found that Florida is home to the third-highest percentage of residents without health insurance and 3 of the top 10 highest-spending metropolitan areas in the country. Meanwhile, Scott — a former health care executive whose for-profit health care hospital chain was charged with excessive government fraud — refuses to even recognize the legality of the federal health care reform law. As he told the Palm Beach Post in November, “It’s not the law of the land,” Scott said. “I don’t believe it will ever be the law of the land.”
His quest to make money off privatization of Medicaid is his only goal. Thankfully, and rightfully, the
feds are putting a stop to it. There's too much money being thrown at something that won't benefit the Floridians, just Scott and his buddies. Now that's crony capitalism, Mike!
Republican lawmakers' quest to expand a Medicaid privatization program statewide was dealt a blow this week after federal health officials said the state could not impose $10 monthly premiums on Medicaid beneficiaries*.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also denied the state's proposal to charge $100 co-pays for any non-emergency ER visits, according to a letter sent Thursday. Federal health officials said the fees violated several statutes designed to protect nearly 3 million of state's most vulnerable.
Lawmakers passed the bills last year trying to rein in the Medicaid budget of more than $20 billion a year and increase accountability for providers. Under the plan, the government pays private companies a set amount for handling a specific number of residents — similar to a health maintenance organization, or HMO, in the private sector. The companies, in turn, decide how to care for the patients, including which doctors they can see and what treatments can be prescribed.
The privatization program builds on a controversial five-county pilot program that started in 2006. Patients said they struggled to get doctor's appointments and doctors dropped out of the program complaining the health plans denied the treatments they prescribed. Several health care providers also dropped out of the program, saying they couldn't turn a profit, leaving patients to be deal with gaps in services as they were bounced between plans.
There has also been little data evaluating the program. The state has not tracked what services were denied and it's unclear whether the small amount of savings was because patients got less care or because it was delivered more efficiently.
Several outspoken Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elaine Schwartz, have hammered the importance of such data, worrying the for-profit health providers will line their pockets with administrative costs unless closely monitored. Federal health officials have insisted the state require private health plans to spend 85 percent of funds on patient care.
“We hope this is just the start of gutting this bad program, and not a mere sop to those of us who see Florida's proposal as a true gutting of the purposes of Medicaid,” Schwartz said.
*Not only that, but they want to charge $100 copays for ER visits!
Of course, we all know it's about the
war on the poor...
From outside an Orlando Starbucks, 45-year-old Rudy Roberts powers up his laptop computer* and uses the free wireless Internet to apply for retail jobs.
Roberts, who has been out of work since the Kmart he managed closed in 2009, relies on $400 a week in state unemployment benefits — money that he says stopped coming in September because of a bureaucratic hiccup. He applies for five jobs each week, he says, in order to comply with a requirement passed by the Florida Legislature.
“I understand why (lawmakers) want you to get out and apply,” said Roberts, who traveled by bus from Orlando to Tallahassee last week to protest Medicaid cuts. “But I don’t think they understand how difficult it really is.”
While Florida’s economy has shown signs of improvement in recent months, the prospects remain bleak for many of the state’s most disadvantaged residents. And there is concern things may only get worse.
The Republican-led Legislature passed a series of sweeping changes last year and is considering additional changes in 2012 that lawmakers say protect taxpayer dollars, wean residents off government assistance and position businesses to reignite Florida’s dormant economy.
Critics like Dorene Barker, legislative director with Florida Legal Services, say the measures amount to an “unprecedented attack on the poor” — from requiring cash welfare recipients to first pass a drug test, to diverting Medicaid patients into managed care, to making it harder for people like Roberts to keep their unemployment benefits.
* Let me add here...the latest
Circle Jerk of Attribution™ deals with the poor using computers and *shudder* government-provided cell phones to apply for jobs.
It's called Life Line, doods, and it's been around since 1996. When it was approved by the all-Republican Congress led by Newt Gingrich and signed into law by Clinton. It's purpose is to provide low cost phone service (among other things) to the elderly and poor.
Help! I've fallen and can't get up!
Nowadays, of course, that little old woman is an evil manipulator of the government.
