NYT: Florida Offers a Bold Stroke to Fight Medicaid Cost (Jeb privatizing)

[DeepModem Mom]

Florida Offers a Bold Stroke to Fight Medicaid Cost
By RICK LYMAN

Published: January 23, 2005


TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 19 - America's governors, struggling for a grip on mounting Medicaid costs, are restricting access, squeezing providers and chipping away at services. But perhaps no one is proposing changes as far-reaching and fundamental as Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.

Mr. Bush is proposing that the state's 2.1 million Medicaid recipients be allotted money to buy their own health care coverage from managed care organizations and other private medical networks. If enacted, the program would make Florida the first state to allow private companies, not the state, to decide the scope and extent of services to the elderly, the disabled and the poor, half of them children....

***

Calling his proposal "empowered care," Governor Bush said when he announced it here on Jan. 11 that it would offer more choice and flexibility to users. Critics, watching closely to see whether he picks up political support and starts a trend, said the plan would mark the first time a state put a cap on state spending beyond which all services for Medicaid users could cease....

***

"It's very radical," said Joan Alker, senior researcher for the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University. "It seems clear that the intent is really based on the notion that the H.M.O.'s and private insurers will have substantial flexibility to make a profit at the expense of the Medicaid beneficiary, who essentially assumes the risk of not getting the services they need. That's unprecedented in Medicaid, really."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/23medicaid.html

[PartyPooper]

1. How do these a$$holes like Jeb and the Bu$h clan sleep at night?

:evilfrown:

[msgadget]

3. They're rich

and none of what they do affects them or those they care about.

[Erika]

6. Not one of the Bushies have ever

had to worry abou health care when they've been sick. Much less dental care or vision care. Under Bush's world, expect an older force of toothless and blind Americans because they couldn't afford the premiums for such coverage. Bush's legacy.

[0rganism]

8. They sleep comfortably, with down pillows and the finest silken sheets

Don't mistake the bushes for people who give a shit.

They're aristocracy. People who can't afford quality health care are their peons.

[depakid]

12. They're aristocracy without Noblesse Oblige

At least old aristocracy had some sense of responsibility toward the less fortunate. The new Republican version has none whatsoever. They are essentially societal sociopaths.

[Erika]

2. I'm sure the minimum wage worker in Florida knows

what the hell this Bush is talking about. Haven't the Bush's raped this country enough already? They even far exceed Prescott Bush's diminishing the poor.

[tlcandie]

19. That would be just about everyone because Florida

has VERY cheap labor!

[msgadget]

4. There's a lot about Jeb in the press lately.

Odd, since he and the family say he has no higher aspirations.

That altruistic Jeb, just empowering people with his radical ideas...
:crazy:

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Aren't all the state reps and senators & even Jeb Bush under

Medicaid coverage? Does this rule apply to them as well?

[yardwork]

15. Oh no! They aren't on Medicaid. They get state-funded private insurance

If our elected officials had to put up with what the rest of America puts up with in terms of health care coverage, we'd see universal health insurance voted in within weeks.

[roguevalley]

7. if their intent is to hurry up the death of their elderly, this is the way

to do it. May they all burn in hell when they die.

[cornermouse]

16. They will... They will.

[tlcandie]

20. Then they can grab all those nice real estate values!!!

Buy BUy BUY.... land grab like nothing ever before!

[EFerrari]

9. I guess the kickbacks are now more than what Jeb could get

from bilking Medicaid.

http://www.pww.org/article/view/1885/1/108/

I first read this story in Mother Jones but the above link has a pretty clear version.

[Skarbrowe]

10. I've been waiting for SSD and medicaid for almost two years.

I think I better move outta Florida. Hopefully, I can find a state that will still provide medicaid for the time I will need it before the system is shut down nation wide. My doctors have told me I am 100 percent uninsurable. What makes Jeb Bush think that any private company is going to pick up people who fall into this category? This is the beginning of the eradication of all entitlement programs. Your pensions and future Social Security benefits will be gone with one major collapse of the stock market. And now all health care for the poor will be gone.

I guess their goal is to make sure most of us die off.

I'm really tired of it all.

[Erika]

13. Yes, how sad

The Bush dynasty simply could care less about caring for the needy and poor in this society. It seems to have something to do with Barbara Bush saying she never thought of dead American troops because why should she waste her "beautiful mind" on such thoughts. Elitism beyond belief, especially when none of her children had the patriotism or guts to serve in active duty of their country.

[Erika]

14. You mean private carriers aren't rushing

to insure you because they know you are a loss?

Four more years of Republican hell.

[depakid]

11. Putting more parasites into the system

That's the bottom line here. Deny people healthcare servcies AND syphon government funds into private hands with no accountability mechanisms.

How very Republican.

[xchrom]

17. i hope it gets very uncomfortable for some low/middle income fundies

who continuously vote for these frauds.

[lovuian]

18. This is the Christian thing to do!!! Dickens times we are heading

for!!! Heres the reality they know they are increasing poverty and none of the workers can be insured so the ultimate is make them slaves to healthcare costs... bankrupt them ...take their homes away


Meanwhile how many trailers can the Hospitals repossess and how many people can come into treatment and be denied care and die

its just not reality Its great on paper but its not reality!!!

[FloridaPat]

21. I had to cancel my health insurance when it hit $700/month. This is

a very expensive way to be insured. Then if there is anything wrong with you, the premiums are more. I doubt the state is going to pay $10,000- $50,000 a year per family or person. Probably just a way to dump people off the rolls, give them a couple grand if they can find insurance at that price, and be done with everything.

[snippy]

22. Republican motto: Profits over people. Let us prey. n/t

[Supersedeas]

23. turning safety nets into profits....brilliant!!!

[Mika]

24. Fascism - as clear as a bell

bushco crime inc. are Nazis. Plain and simple.

[thethinker]

25. Here is an idea . . .

Retired folks have more time than the rest of us. They are fairly well organized through the magazine for retired people.

Many of them have campers they live in and travel south during the winter. They need to take those campers and go to the Florida capitol. They need to create traffic jams in the capitol. They need to surround Jeb's house. Florida has lots of retired people. They need to show up in force - in their wheel chairs, or what ever. They need to make s stink about this - big time.

Maybe Jeb could understand that social security is something people pay into for 45+ years and it had better be there when we need the money back. It is OUR money, not the government's money. It is not an "entitlement" it is a loan.

[DeepModem Mom]

26. What a great buzz-phrase for SS -- not an entitlement, but a LOAN!

And our government is going to try to stiff us --