Union appeals to voters in the Medicaid ‘coverage gap’

[ProSense]

Union appeals to voters in the Medicaid ‘coverage gap’

By Kathleen McGrory and Tia Mitchell

TALLAHASSEE -- The state healthcare workers’ union has a new strategy in its fight to expand Medicaid coverage: reaching out to voters “who’ve been screwed out of healthcare coverage by their representative’s refusal to act.”

SEIU Florida will be knocking on doors this weekend in four state House districts...targeted lawmakers include Republican Reps. Manny Diaz Jr. of Hialeah; Erik Fresen of Miami, Kathleen Peters of St. Petersburg and Bill Hager of Delray Beach.

Each lawmakers represents more than 4,600 residents who are missing out on coverage, according to an analysis by the union.

<...>

“It’s time to bring this issue right down into each neighborhood, so people understand exactly what they and their friends, family and neighbors are losing because their elected representative has chosen politics over people,” said Martha Baker, vice president of SEIU Florida and a nurse at Jackson Health System in Miami.

- more -

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/11/4054291/union-appeals-to-voters-in-the.html

[sheshe2]

1. So,

The GOP lawmakers say their position on Medicaid expansion is not driven by politics. Diaz, for one, said he opposes the policy because he does not believe it will improve most Floridians’ access to quality healthcare.

“It’s unfortunate that a labor union that is concerned about making money attacks elected officials that stand on principle for their constituents,” he said Friday.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/11/4054291/union-appeals-to-voters-in-the.html#storylink=cpy

Diaz does not "believe" it will improve access to healthcare for Floridians'? So let's not bother trying it even though it has proven to be working in other states. Keep standing on your principles, that will surely help your constituents.





Thanks PS, I hope they get the word out!

[ProSense]

3. Doesn't make sense, does it?

"Diaz does not 'believe' it will improve access to healthcare for Floridians'? So let's not bother trying it even though it has proven to be working in other states. Keep standing on your principles, that will surely help your constituents."

I mean, does this clown "believe" the people currently being block from access to care are better off than those who qualify for it under traditional Medicaid?

[sheshe2]

4. Nothing they do makes any sense to me at all anymore.

Kicking!

[ProSense]

2. Medicaid enrollment rises 8 percent in Florida

Medicaid is expanding because of the woodwork effect.

Medicaid enrollment rises 8 percent in Florida

By KELLI KENNEDY

MIAMI -- Florida's Republican lawmakers remain staunchly opposed to expanding Medicaid — a system they've repeatedly said is too expensive and doesn't improve health outcomes. Yet Florida's Medicaid rolls are expanding under the Affordable Care Act.

That's because people trying to sign up for health insurance under Obama's new health law are finding out — to their surprise — that they qualify for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor.

Some 245,000 Floridians were added to the Medicaid rolls between October and the end of February. That's a more than 8 percent increase. The Sunshine State is one of ten states that accounted for more than 80 percent of the 3 million new Medicaid enrollees under the Affordable Care Act, according to Avalere Health, a market research and consulting firm. But Florida was the only state of the ten, which include California, Oregon and Washington, that didn't expand Medicaid.

Florida's newest enrollees include more than 51,000 children, according to health advocacy group Florida CHAIN.

- more -

http://www.governing.com/columns/potomac-chronicle/col-new-states-rights-movement.html

Rick Scott is an evil moron.

Tampa Bay Times: Scott worst Florida governor in modern times
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024797667

[napkinz]

5. re "Rick Scott is an evil moron" --->

Watch: Rick Scott Confronted, Stumbles to Explain His Obamacare Lies

April 9, 2014
Omar Rivero

On Wednesday morning, Florida Republican Governor and Tea Party “darling”, Rick Scott, struggled to explain his campaign’s shameless Obamacare lies when confronted by a truth-seeking reporter.

The exchange centered around a claim by Rick Scott and his campaign in ads playing all across Florida that Obamacare had caused 300,000 Floridians to “lose” their health care.

Unfortunately for Rick Scott, not even insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield agrees with his deceitful assessment, even releasing a statement claiming that 60,000 of those have switched plans on their own accord, and the others received a one year extension on their old plans, meaning that nobody “lost” coverage.

Armed with this truth, the reporters pressed Scott to explain his campaign ads’ clearly misleading claim, leaving Scott struggling to change the subject.

As he usually does, the Republican governor ended the interview right after the testy exchange.

Please watch the video below:

http://www.demonews.org/watch-gov-rick-scott-stumbles-to-explain-his-obamacare-lies/




Economist Slams Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott’s Refusal to Expand Medicaid: ‘Almost Awesome in its Evilness’

April 10, 2014
Bob Cull

MIT economist Jonathon Gruber and Florida state Representative Joe Saunders (D) joined Al Sharpton on MSNBC’s Politics Nation Wednesday, to discuss the refusal by Florida and other red states to accept Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.

Gruber was already on record as saying of these states, “They are not just not interested in covering poor people, they are willing to sacrifice billions of dollars of injections into their economy in order to punish poor people. It really is just almost awesome in its evilness.”

These states have left 4.8 million people without health insurance who make too little to qualify for a subsidy under the law and too much to qualify for Medicaid without the expansion. It is yet another cruel tactic being employed by the right in the attempt to ensure that the law does not succeed.

In Florida alone, 763,890 people will fall into the Medicaid gap. They do not qualify for a subsidy nor do they qualify for Medicaid — they are the people the Medicaid expansion was intended to benefit.

read more: http://aattp.org/economist-slams-tea-party-gov-rick-scotts-refusal-to-expand-medicaid-almost-awesome-in-its-evilness/

[napkinz]

6. She lost her life because Rick Scott refused to expand Medicaid in Florida

APR 09, 2014

Charlene Dill didn’t have to die. That's how this article from Orlando Weekly starts about a young mother of three who died while selling vacuums door to door. On that day, in order to make enough money to survive, she made two last-minute appointments. At one of those appointments, in Kissimmee, Charlene collapsed and died on a stranger’s floor.

Dill, estranged from her husband, was raising three children aged 3, 7 and 9 by herself. Charlene was supposed to bring her three children over to the South Orlando home of her best friend, Kathleen Voss Woolrich. The two had cultivated a close friendship since 2008; they shared all the resources that they had, from debit-card PINs to transportation to baby-sitting and house keys. They helped one another out, forming a safety net where there wasn’t one already.

Dill’s death was not unpredictable, nor was it unpreventable. She had a documented heart condition for which she took medication. But she also happened to be one of the people who fall within the gap created by the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, which was a key part of the Affordable Care Act’s intention to make health care available to everyone. In the ensuing two years, 23 states have refused to expand Medicaid, including Florida, which rejected $51 billion from the federal government over the period of a decade to overhaul its Medicaid program to include people like Dill and Woolrich – people who work, but do not make enough money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies. They, like many, are victims of a political war – one that puts the lives and health of up to 17,000 U.S. residents and 2,000 Floridians annually in jeopardy, all in the name of rebelling against President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/09/1290831/-She-lost-her-life-because-Rick-Scott-refused-to-expand-Medicaid-in-Florida#