Editorial: A mobster's morals

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150514/opinion01/150519838?p=1&tc=pg

Published: Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
For all his talk about how the feds are behaving like mobsters from “The Sopranos,” Gov. Rick Scott is the one who is running state government like an extortion racket.

Unable to bully the Florida Senate into backing down on Medicaid expansion, Scott is now strong arming Florida hospitals to share their profits.

For some muscle to force them into that position, Scott created a Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding to investigate their finances. If there was any illusion that the commission was set up to do anything but push the governor’s views, Scott shattered it by stacking the group with political supporters almost completely lacking in health-care experience.

Just one of the group’s nine members, Dr. Jason Rosenberg of Gainesville, has significant experience in the health-care field. Other members include the owner of a beef consulting firm, a hotel developer and a retired brigadier general.

One thing that some members have in common is political contributions to Scott and other Republicans. The commission’s chairman, home builder Carlos Beruff, has contributed more than $107,000 to Republican causes and candidates — including $80,000 to Scott or his Let’s Get to Work committee, Floridapolitics.com reported.

Scott has shown that he’ll say and do just about anything to get his way on the hospital funding issue. The tea-party backed conservative is even willing to sound like a socialist, as he did when he said hospitals should share their profits to pay for the care of uninsured patients.

Last week, Scott even admitted that he backed Medicaid expansion in 2013 only to get a waiver from the Obama administration for program privatization. At the time, he claimed he had a change of heart due to his mother’s death.

The governor’s office pushed backed against the Associated Press labeling this as a “ruse,” but that characterization was too kind. The reality is the governor lied to get what he wanted, invoking his deceased mother to sell that lie.

This week, he continued making a claim that the Obama administration is acting like “The Sopranos” for refusing to give Florida federal money to cover uninsured people who use the state’s hospitals. But Scott is the one behaving with all the morals of a mobster on this issue.

More than 800,000 uninsured Floridians are having their very lives put at risk due to a lack of coverage. Unable to pay for visits to primary-care doctors, they let health problems worsen until they end up in hospital emergency rooms with far more serious illnesses.

Extending health coverage to these individuals — whether through Medicaid or a private-insurance plan, as the Florida Senate proposes — benefits their physical health as well as the financial health of everyone else. The status quo only causes everyone’s health costs and insurance rates to rise.

If Scott had the state’s best interests at heart, he’d help negotiate a compromise that covers the poor and ensures the state’s hospitals aren’t left to cover their bills.

Instead, he’s willing to go to any extent to get what he wants. That sounds more like a mobster than anyone else involved in this issue.

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http://thinkprogress.org/progress-report/another-government-shutdown-over-healthcare/

Florida Governor Threatens State Shutdown Over Medicaid Expansion
Here’s a story we’re all familiar with: a GOP Governor refuses to expand Medicaid for his own political gain, hurting the state’s economy and leaving thousands of low-income constituents in the coverage gap. But in recent days, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has flip flopped multiple times on Medicaid expansion, has taken this mission to extreme lengths. Gov. Scott warned state agencies yesterday to prepare for a possible government shutdown because state lawmakers can’t agree on Medicaid expansion.
Why can’t they agree? Probably because Gov. Scott, beyond flip-flopping, has shown irresponsible leadership on the issue. The governor filed a lawsuit against the federal government for note extending federal funding for the Low-Income Pool (LIP), a fund that has been set to expire this year because Medicaid expansion is a smarter, more cost-effective replacement. Texas, Tennessee and Kansas, which all have large uninsured populations like Florida, also have refused to expand Medicaid, and also are about to see their LIP funding expire. Officials in Texas and Kansas have joined Gov. Scott’s political games by filing amicus briefs supporting Florida in its lawsuit.
Medicaid expansion under the ACA has always been common sense. In addition to creating jobs and supporting economic growth, Medicaid expansion greatly reduces the uninsured population, which drastically reduces the need for LIP funding. Here are just a few of the costs associated with these four states not expanding Medicaid:
More than 1.8 million people are uninsured because Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Kansas refuse to expand Medicaid.
These states have forfeited billions in economic growth. Florida alone, could have seen $8.9 billion in increased economic activity in just two years if it had expanded Medicaid in 2014.
Not expanding Medicaid has cost 165,000 new jobs in these four states.
Hospitals have lost more than $65 billion in reimbursements because lawmakers in these states would not expand Medicaid.
That’s just a glimpse of what the 20 states that have not expanded Medicaid are already facing. But a new report, out today, found that the situation could get even worse for these if the Supreme Court rules against the law in the upcoming case King v. Burwell. According to the report, in the 20 states that have not expanded Medicaid, 9.8 million people will go without insurance in 2016 if the court rules against the law.
Refusing federal funding to close the coverage gap isn’t the only way conservative state officials are attacking working Americans. On Wednesday, Missouri state legislators passed Right-to-Work legislation that weakens unions and inhibits workers from bargaining for better wages and benefits. The ability to advocate for fair wages and benefits along with access to affordable health care are essential to helping workers get ahead, yet conservative lawmakers continue to advance policies that make it harder for these Americans to make ends meet.
BOTTOM LINE: Following the lead of Gov. Rick Scott, conservative lawmakers across the country continue with their irresponsible attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, regardless of the costs. It’s time for conservative leaders to stop playing politics with the health care of millions of Americans and realize what’s at stake.

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http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-scott-pours-gasoline-on-the-fire/2229868