Latest Articles

Proposing Medicaid Cuts is Hardly a Thoughtless Act (2012-01-18)

January 12, 2012- Governor Scott has proposed cutting $2 billion in Medicaid payments to Florida hospitals next year. The hospitals anchoring the health care safety net would bear the brunt of those cuts, undermining access to care for the poorest as well as the integrity of the Medicaid system as a whole.

Proposing Medicaid Cuts is Hardly a Thoughtless Act (2012-01-18)

Medicaid Misinformation: What FL Leaders Get Away With Saying (2012-01-04)

January 4, 2012- Despite PolitiFact.com's stated aim of "sorting out the truth in politics" and the Pulitzer Prize it received for its efforts, it nevertheless came under heavy fire last month for naming the claim that "Republicans voted to end Medicare" the Lie of the Year for 2011. Objectors (like Florida CHAIN) insisted that the House GOP was in fact trying to fundamentally end the program by supporting a plan to convert Medicare to a system of private vouchers. There may be some room to misinterpret such an oversimplified statement, but it's certainly no lie. Furthermore, once explained, it turns out to be fully true.

State Leaders Show Tenacity...in Legal Fight Against Workers and Families (2011-11-29)

November 30, 2011- A Google search turns up thousands of references to the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming review of the Florida-led challenge to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The majority focus on the most hotly debated element of the ACA: the so-called "individual mandate."

ht State Leaders Show Tenacity…in Legal Fight Against Workers and Families (2011-11-29)

Summary of Advocates' Objections to Florida's Medicaid Managed Care Proposal (2011-10-28)

October 12, 2011- Florida's request for federal approval to extend the problem-plagued Medicaid Reform experiment is still pending. Nevertheless, the State submitted its request to launch the new statewide Medicaid managed care experiment, even though the new proposal directly uses the old Reform failure as its foundation. Florida CHAIN and others submitted their objections to the new proposals this week, arguing that federal officials must reject them for legal, moral, and technical reasons.

Not Convinced the State Will Say Anything to Reduce Medicaid Spending? Read This. (2011-08-10)

Florida has now submitted its request to the federal government seeking approval of the statewide Medicaid managed care experiment authorized by the Legislature last spring. The proposal clearly demonstrates the State's true objective, and it has nothing to do with protecting Medicaid. These documents provide the latest confirmation that leaders are willing to say (or not say) almost anything to advance their agenda. And they're counting on the fact that the poorest and sickest won't know until it's too late.

Medicaid recipients could pay $100 for ER visit (2011-07-28)

July 28, 2011- Federal CMS could theoretically consider approving another provision requiring recipients who seek "non-emergency" care in a hospital emergency room to make a $100 co-payment. Nevertheless, that proposal is every bit as preposterous as the others.

Un-"waivering" Confusion? (2011-07-19)

July 19, 2011- I received an e-mail last weekend asking how federal approval of Florida's new statewide Medicaid managed care experiment could possibly have been forthcoming so quickly. The short answer is: it hasn't come at all.

The Case Against Florida's Proposed Managed Long-Term Care Experiment (2011-07-15)

July 8, 2011- The Florida Legislature's 2011 Medicaid reform law is designed to move the entire Medicaid population into managed care organizations (MCO) beginning with elderly and disabled in 2013. The state must receive waiver approval from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS).

Would Legislators Really Twist the Truth Just to Hurt the Most Vulnerable? (2011-06-27)

June 28, 2011- If it actually were possible to make an incorrect statement true simply by repeating it enough, then the new legislation expanding Medicaid managed care statewide might really be beneficial for our "friends and neighbors" who depend on Medicaid.

ACA Evasion: Kahn Artistry? (2011-05-23)

May 23, 2011- In his advertisements, professional tax protester/evader Eddie Ray Kahn claimed that he could help his clients distinguish between “taxes they must pay” and “taxes which are voluntary.” Kahn felt that any requirement to pay taxes is unconstitutional, and so he simply defied federal tax laws. In fact, he resisted enforcement and encouraged others to act similarly.

Just-Passed Medicaid Legislation (2011-05-10)

May 10, 2011- On the final night of its 60-day session, the GOP-dominated Florida Legislature delivered a statewide Medicaid privatization bill that had been on its way for several years. Despite the long journey, the bill that passed - with its new twists on old flaws - was in circulation less than 30 hours before the final vote.

Just-Passed Medicaid Legislation (2011-05-10)

May 10, 2011- On the final night of its 60-day session, the GOP-dominated Florida Legislature delivered a statewide Medicaid privatization bill that had been on its way for several years.

Don't Overlook Scariest Part of Scary Medicaid Overhauls (2011-04-11)

April 11, 2011- Both Medicaid overhaul bills moving through the Legislature are scary in that they aim to expand the failed Medicaid Reform experiment statewide and turn decision-making over to mostly for-profit managed care plans.

Cover Florida: Good Enough to Sell but Not Good Enough to Regulate? (2010-09-28)

Sept. 28, 2010- When the 2008 Legislature passed Governor Crist's Cover Florida idea into law, the promised result was (and still is) the availability of affordable health insurance for Floridians without coverage. The trade-off, however, is that Cover Florida is bad coverage, the kind the Affordable Care Act (ACA) specifically aims to make obsolete. As of 2014, when the new health insurance exchanges come on-line, Cover Florida plans will not be sold there, and in fact will serve no purpose whatsoever.

Health Solutions Tour (Part 2 of 3) (2010-09-15)

September 15, 2010- On their Health Solutions Tour, incoming Senate leaders made it clear they haven't given up on the extreme ideas for Medicaid they introduced last session. Just the opposite, in fact.

Health Solutions Tour About Neither Health Nor Solutions (Part 1 of 3) (2010-08-20)

August 20, 2010- What did we learn from State Senate President-Elect Mike Haridopolos' recent whirlwind "Health Solutions Tour"? During each of the series of quick tour stops, he and other Senate leaders pitched the long-repeated and misleading claim that Medicaid is breaking the bank in Florida to hand-picked audiences

An "Exchange" of Ideas (2010-06-27)

June 25, 2010- It certainly took me by surprise. Running a few minutes late to a meeting of the Florida Health Choices Corporation Board, I arrived just in time to catch the first of several references to FHC as “Florida's health insurance exchange”.

No, Really (2010-05-11)

The journey to passage of national health care reform was much longer and harder than it should have been because opponents misrepresented so many facts…or even lied. And while it's hardly a revelation that we`re more likely to believe a lie yelled 6 times than a truth mentioned once, the power behind that principle seems greater than we could have imagined.

Managing myths in Medicaid managed care (2010-04-15)

(4/13/10) Legislative leaders have used certain statements as a basis for proposing a series of expansions of Medicaid managed care. It's compelling stuff that greases the wheels for action. Unfortunately, we`ve heard it all before. It wasn`t true then, however, and it still isn`t true today.

Medicaid overhaul - deja voucher? (2010-04-03)

If you start out with a bad plan and things go awry, is the most effective way to put that failure behind you to start pitching a plan that's ten times worse? Then maybe the original bad idea doesn`t seem so bad?

AHCA on Reform Expansion: It's Convenient (2010-02-24)

AHCA has been making it increasingly clear to the Legislature that it wants to see the Medicaid Reform experiment both continued and expanded. Most recently, AHCA Secretary Tom Arnold presented an explicit proposal to expand the Pilot from 5 to 24 counties next year to a Senate committee.