Florida Medicaid program in limbo

Florida Medicaid program in limbo
By The Associated Press
Published: October 07, 2012


MIAMI — Millions of uninsured Florida families and health care providers are in a purgatory of sorts.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature want to privatize the state's Medicaid program, but need the Obama administration's permission. The Obama administration wants to make more low-income Floridians eligible for Medicaid, but needs Scott and the Legislature to agree.

The sides have been negotiating a package deal for more than a year and won't comment. Without a solution billions of federal dollars could go to other states and many uninsured Floridians will continue to receive their health care in emergency rooms — the most expensive, least effective place. Safety nets, like community health centers, say they don't have enough funding to keep up as more uninsured patients end up in their waiting rooms.

"So many states are in a bit of a holding pattern until after the election," said Joan Alker, co-executive director of the Georgetown University research center.

Florida's Medicaid program currently costs more than $21 billion a year, with the federal government picking up roughly half the tab. It covers nearly 3 million people — about half are children — and consumes about 30 percent of the state budget.

In an effort to cut costs, the state has been trying to privatize Medicaid — rather than having government insurance, patients would be assigned to for-profit insurance companies, which would receive a per-person fee from the state and decide what services and prescriptions to cover. A five-county pilot program showed little or no savings, however, but Scott and the Legislature still want to take a revamped version of the program statewide.

Meanwhile, Florida has some of the most stringent eligibility requirements in the country. A family of three with income of $11,000 a year makes too much and single residents are not covered. The Obama administration wants those requirements loosened so that an estimated 2 million uninsured Floridians could be covered by Medicaid. Feds will pick all the expenses tab for the first three years and at least 90 percent after, along with extra funding for technology costs.
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