By John Kennedy
The Palm Beach Post, August 1, 2011
Florida officials sent a wide-ranging application Monday to the federal government for steering almost 3 million Medicaid patients into managed care, a major shift that has sparked heavy lobbying from critics who demand the Obama administration deny the move.
But Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he was confident the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would approve the request, which supporters say could save the state more than $1 billion when fully in place.
“I think that what we passed is going to be a model for Medicaid,” said Scott, a former health care executive. “A Medicaid recipient ought to have choice, just like all of us have choice for what insurance we want to buy. I think that’s positive.”
But he added, “We’ve got to make sure it’s a program we can afford as taxpayers. I think what we did will do those two things.”
And…
State to limit HMOs in state employee insurance program
Health Beat
August 2, 2011
Florida is changing part of its state-employee health insurance program to offer only one HMO in each county. The state Department of Management Services, which oversees employee insurance, said changes in the program would save an estimated $400 million over two years. The changes also would require thousands of state employees to switch to different HMOs, a process that would begin in late September.
Insurers UnitedHealthcare of Florida and Coventry Health Care of Florida filed formal protests Monday against the changes. United argued, for example, that the changes could actually increase costs. That is because United — which would be shut out of the program in much of the state — says it can negotiate better discounts than other HMOs.
But Gov. Rick Scott and DMS Secretary Jack Miles touted the savings from the plan.
“Saving taxpayer dollars wasn’t just a campaign gimmick,” Scott said in a news release. “I meant what I said when I ran for office, and I urge Secretary Miles and his team to keep pushing hard every day to deliver more savings and better results.”
http://health.nsfblogs.com/?p=220
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Although Rick Scott was certainly tarnished when his company, Columbia/HCA paid the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history, he has nevertheless been chosen by Florida Republicans to serve as their governor. One of his messages was to achieve savings in health care by promoting choice. Is he touting a fundamental economic principle, or is he using this rhetoric to masquerade his conservative ideology?
Look at what he is trying to do with Medicaid in his state. He wants to force Medicaid patients into managed care organizations claiming that giving them the right to choose insurers will reduce costs. If so, then why isn’t taking away from them their right to choose their health care professionals and institutions going to increase costs?
What about the state employee health insurance program? He is going to save money by taking away the employees’ choice of HMOs, limiting each county to only one HMO for government employees.
His use of the term “choice” is another fraud, but it is no worse than the fraud that progressives perpetrated when they campaigned for health reform using the slogan of “CHOICE.” Their proposal offered only choice of restrictive private health plans while preventing true choice of health care professionals and institutions that people could have had through a Medicare-like national health program.
Today’s final passage of the Budget Control Act doesn’t bode well for the future of placing policy above political rhetoric. In the name of “saving the economy,” the Democrats cooperated with the Republicans in slashing public programs while failing to tap important revenue sources in our nation that happens to have one of the lowest tax burdens of all industrialized nations.
Will we ever have the choice of truly responsible political leaders? It seems unlikely as long as Americans rely on billionaire disinformation campaigns for their understanding of public policy options.