Shame on Florida. The state has dealt Medicaid patients several mean-spirited blows of late.
First, state legislators turned a blind eye toward Medicaid nursing home patients in rejecting millions in federal money that would have sent many home with subsidized health care.
These low-income disabled and elderly patients would gain greater dignity and peace, and family would provide comfort and companionship.
But the Legislative Budget Commission, empowered to change the state budget and comprised of seven senators and seven representatives, put politics ahead of people as Republican lawmakers provided the deciding votes in spurning a total of $37.8 million.
That federal grant would have diverted more than a thousand Medicaid patients from nursing homes in favor of home care over the next five years.
One GOP lawmaker cited duplication with the state’s current nursing home diversion program for his negative vote late last month. But this rejected grant would have provided additional patients with in-home care.
Another legislator pointed to saving federal taxpayer money in her nay vote. Florida and a dozen other states were in line to receive these grants, joining 29 other states already participating in the Money Follows the Person program.
This is part of the federal health care reform law opposed by Florida in a lawsuit. To his credit, Gov. Rick Scott, an avowed foe of the Affordable Care Act, recommended acceptance of the grant.
Why wouldn’t Florida want to allow an estimated 1,700 elderly and disabled to receive medical care at home -- at a significantly cheaper price than nursing home care? The benefits to taxpayers are readily apparent as is the higher quality of life for patients.
Secondly, Florida is poised to force the state’s 3 million Medicaid recipients into a privatization program beginning in July 2012 -- despite an uproar from South Florida patients in a five-county pilot program instituted five years ago.
At a public meeting staged by state health officials several weeks ago, both doctors and patients complained that treatments and medications were frequently denied.
The pilot program does not track these denials, leading to questions about accountability, transparency and quality of care.
Yet Florida is pushing ahead with private managed care without full knowledge of its effectiveness, though the state still awaits federal approval of this change. Lawmakers simply claim privatization will rein in Medicaid costs and improve patient care, though lacking in cold, hard facts proving either point.
But by rejecting federal grant money for home care and forcing privatization upon the state’s most vulnerable citizens, Florida is proving helpful to the nursing home industry and managed care companies.
What’s in the best interest of people takes a back seat to what’s in the best interest of business. Shame on Florida’s Legislature.
