Gov. Crist to add wealthy wife and stepchildren to free health insurance premiums paid by Floridians

[seafan]

By the way, Crist's two stepdaughters don't live in Florida.



Florida taxpayers foot bill for Gov. Crist, top lawmakers' health care subsidy


November 30, 2009

Top Florida lawmakers are balking at Congress' plans to help more poor people get health care, though they've protected an entitlement of their own: free insurance premiums.

Taxpayers have been stuck with covering the premiums — at a cost of about $45 million a year — even while lawmakers pledged to scrimp as they grappled with three straight years of budget shortfalls.

Florida doesn't limit the subsidies to statewide officeholders like Gov. Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, or to legislators like Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul. About 27,479 state employees -- many of them high-level bureaucrats and political appointees -- also get the break. So do their families.

"I think it's appropriate. I think it's part of the compensation package for a public servant," Crist said. "It's a policy that has been supported by the Legislature and I'm comfortable with it."

The governor plans to add his wife of nearly one year, wealthy businesswoman and philanthropist Carole Crist, as well as her two daughters from a previous marriage to his health plan on Jan. 1. The girls attend an all-girls private school in New York and live with their father, who owns a jet-rental company.

"There is not a residency requirement for coverage," explained Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey.

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According to this article, six other states also offer free health insurance premiums to some of their employees and their families. In comparison, members of Congress are required to pay monthly fees for their health benefits.


But, it's OK, you see, because Good-Time Charlie is 'comfortable with it'.



But he's apparently not comfortable with health care for everyone else.



November 23, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday sharply criticized efforts by President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

He said health care overhaul was being pushed, “almost literally down our throats,” by Democrats in Washington – and strongly opposed by Republicans. “We need to stop it in its tracks,” he said.

Crist didn’t mention Obama, but said Democratic congressional leaders, “want to have government control everything. They want to get a bureaucrat between you and your doctor.”

Without offering specifics, he called for a “free enterprise approach” to health care.

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We long for the day we can wipe the corrupt stains of these so-called 'public servants' out of our government.

[Angry Dragon]

1. They do such a fine job

they deserve a free ride