Florida receives final permission to privatize Medicaid

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Miami Herald

It's just a formality since the deal was announced months ago, but today Florida officially received the waiver it needs to privatize Medicaid. Gov. Rick Scott first announced in February that the state had received conditional approval from the federal government to allow private companies to administer the Medicaid program for roughly 3 million participants.

That was the same day Scott said he would support Medicaid expansion, his decision based in part on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' conditional agreement on granting the managed care waiver. The governor and the Senate agreed on an expansion alternative that would have qualified for $51 billion, but House Republicans blocked the deal.

Here is more from the governor's office on the final managed care waiver:

Gov. Rick Scott today announced the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave final approval to amend the 1115 waiver demonstration, which allows the state to extend an improved model of managed care to all counties in Florida and will require managed care for certain populations. In addition, program operations and safeguards have been enhanced as this waiver amendment allows the state to improve upon the managed care model originally developed for the five-county reform demonstration that began in 2006.


Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/06/florida-receives-final-permission-to-privatize-medicaid.html

[leftyohiolib]

1. so they gave up a 3% overhead for what an 18% profit -

[Iliyah]

2. Stealing again

profit over protections for citizens. Please vote these people out FL.

[russspeakeasy]

3. It just makes it easier for our scumbag gov to steal it.

[L0oniX]

4. Scott is doing what he can to harm Florida. He knows he will not get a second term.

[booley]

5. I feel this is relevant

But of all the big pots of federal money that Florida has rejected, none quite compares with Scott's moves to block Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid to the working poor. Today, a single parent with two children can't qualify for Medicaid in Florida if she makes more than $3,200 a year—one of the nation's lowest eligibility levels. Obamacare provides funding to raise that ceiling to $25,390 for a family of three. The federal government would pick up 100 percent of the cost of the expansion for the first three years, and 90 percent in later years—sending about $73 billion in new funding to the state in the next decade, with Florida's share of the bill totaling just $9 billion. "At the most, the state would have to spend 10 cents for every dollar" it gets back, explains Laura Goodhue, the executive director of Florida Community Health Action Information Network, a nonprofit group that advocates for the uninsured. But Scott has said even that is too much.

If Florida rejects the Medicaid expansion, state hospitals stand to lose about $654 million a year in federal payments for care to the uninsured—payments that were reduced in Obamacare on the assumption that hospitals would gain revenue by caring for the newly insured. The hospitals, particularly public ones that have already lost $1.5 billion to state budget cuts over the past eight years, have been lobbying hard for the expansion, but tea partiers have been equally vocal, and in June, Scott announced that he would be rejecting the Medicaid expansion. "We don't need to expand a big-government program to provide for everyone's needs," he said. "What we need is to shrink the cost of health care and expand opportunities for people to get a job so more people can afford it."*

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/florida-tea-party-backlash-rick-scott

So if I am getting this right, they sabotage the system and then use that as an excuse ot privatize it so they and thier cronies can make a pretty penny. I mean the florida health care is already a cess pool of fraud and poor care. Somehow I doubt this will help make that that better.

[Rebellious Republican]

8. You have summed it up perectly!

[historylovr]

6. K & R.

[siligut]

7. POS Rick Scott made his money off of providing inferior healthcare

This is how he and his cronies get any government oversight out of their business of abusive medical care for profit.

[WovenGems]

9. New Task

We need to find a way to sever Florida from the continent. Just set her drifting off to sea, an island of privatized(for profit) public assistance. A for profit safety net, lovely.

[Mojorabbit]

10. I live here and comments like that are not helpful

The man will not see a second term. Perhaps after he is gone we can finally set some things back on the right path.
Peace, Mojo

[WovenGems]

11. Not covert

Lots of heads up that the project was to create a true free market zone. A real world experiment. All who wished not to be research animals would be offered a quick way out. I never advocate collateral damage.