Florida is complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about health care exchanges.

[madfloridian]

Looks like Floridians will not benefit from lower prices on the new Obamacare health exchanges. The Rick Scott Republicans who rule the state are making it hard for people to get information about it.

From the New York Times:

Florida Among States Undercutting Health Care Enrollment

MIAMI — As many states prepare to introduce a linchpin of the 2010 health care law — the insurance exchanges designed to make health care more affordable — a handful of others are taking the opposite tack: They are complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about the new program.

Chief among them is Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature have made it more difficult for Floridians to obtain the cheapest insurance rates under the exchange and to get help from specially trained outreach counselors.


....Even among states hostile to the law, Florida became an outlier this year when it passed a bill removing for two years the state insurance commissioner’s ability to approve insurance rates for new health plans, she said. This leaves Floridians vulnerable to higher rates at a time when the new health plans will be introduced.

...Last week, Florida’s deputy health secretary ordered county health facilities to bar navigators, or outreach counselors. The health department said it was following established policy: All outside groups are prohibited from using county health property to conduct nonstate business. Brochures, though, will be made available, according to a statement. No written requests for space have been made by navigators, a spokesman said.

So the good news about lower rates in many states will mean little to Floridians.

More on this from Huffington Post:

Florida Bans Obamacare Navigators From Helping Uninsured At County Health Departments

Florida has issued an order that will prevent residents from finding out how they can sign up for expanded subsidized health insurance at county health departments.

The directive bans the outreach activities of "navigators," or counselors hired under the Affordable Care Act to help low-income, uninsured residents sign up for the state's expanded insurance program.

"This is another blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare counselors have been doing for years," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Fabien Levy.

[madfloridian]

1. Sebelius: FL Actions 'Unbelievable'

Sebelius: FL Actions 'Unbelievable'

Saying "Florida has done some pretty unbelievable things," top federal health official Kathleen Sebelius told Jacksonville leaders on Monday she hopes they will get the word out that help for the uninsured is on the way.

According to the Florida Times-Union, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said she's focused on Florida because the state's government has done so much to try to block the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, even though Florida has 3.8 million uninsured.

[B Calm]

2. Doesn't surprise me.

[Skittles]

3. Texas is doing the same

not educating folk on what to expect, showing open contempt, etc.

[riversedge]

5. So is Gov Walker in Wisconsin

[SunSeeker]

6. This will cost people their lives.

These are some of the most vulnerable people in the country, and Rick Scott is endangering their lives to play spiteful, petty political games.

[madfloridian]

11. Exactly right.

I wonder when his avid followers will catch on.

[SoCalDem]

7. Right wingers doing what they do best

gumming up the works

[sorefeet]

8. The enemies of this country

are our own elected officials. We need to redefine the word treason OR find a fucking word to describe these people that would make them the anti American criminals that they are. Hold them accountable for their actions. Does anyone else feel this is just plain wrong but the PTB are untouchable. I thought we out number the bad people and majority rules.

[Zorra]

9. Totally predictable. Here is a Basic Resource Guide to use for enrolling in the ACA exchanges.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023648218

I am having difficulty getting information, even responses, from the agency in my rural county that received a federal Navigator Grant.

[madfloridian]

12. Thanks for that link. Lots of info there.

[Starry Messenger]

10. k&r