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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
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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 Monday, May 02, 2005

Medicaid Fraud

    The Senate seems to be doing its bit to expose "Jeb!"'s medicaid fraud:
    When Florida Senate President Tom Lee verbally blasted Gov. Jeb Bush earlier this week, many chalked it up to simmering political resentment and end-of-session fatigue.

    But Lee's frustration is legitimate, especially when it comes to the Bush-backed plan to radically revamp the state's massive Medicaid program -- a move that could hit state taxpayers and vulnerable residents hard.

    Bush likes to describe his Medicaid plan as a "big, hairy, audacious goal," and the appellation fits. Under his proposal, the state's 2.2 million Medicaid recipients -- mostly children, senior citizens and people with chronic physical or mental illnesses -- would be pitched into the private market to negotiate their own care. Private managed-care providers would be allowed to decide what tests, medications and medical services to offer, and when to cut off coverage. To their credit, House leaders blinked at the scope of the governor's proposal, trimming it back to pilot programs and requiring a greater degree of accountability.

    But Senate leaders -- including Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, and Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville --did a far better job of penetrating the weakness of the plan. Senators say they won't accept a change that lets private plans offer a lower standard of coverage than state law currently requires.
    "Pointed questions". The "we love 'Jeb!'" crowd at the Orlando Sentinel have a different view, arguing that "Florida needs to take this leap of faith". Sorry, but taking a leap of faith with "Jeb!" in a massive privatization scheme - with his privatization track record - is crazy.

6:42 AM

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