FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Friday, March 04, 2005

Even Legislators Might Get It

    Our elected representatives
    have been getting a dose of reality that should inform the debate on Medicaid funding and reform in the upcoming session. Consider these examples from recent public forums: Without Medicaid-covered prescriptions, a heart-transplant recipient would die in two weeks from organ rejection. Without Medicaid, a 20-year-old woman with muscular dystrophy can't work or pay taxes and likely would have to be institutionalized at state cost. Freezes in already-low payments to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes would cause physicians to stop taking nonemergency Medicaid patients. And Medicaid beneficiaries forced into emergency rooms would cost local taxpayers far more to treat.

    The lesson of these real-life scenarios is clear: Before rushing head-long into reforms for what ails Medicaid, the Legislature should ensure that the cure isn't worse than the disease. Attempts to cut costs from the state's Medicaid budget shouldn't come at the expense of shifting increased costs to local communities or leaving federal matching funds on the table.
    "Beware the cure that's worse than the disease".

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