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."

E-Mail Florida Politics

This is our Main Page
Our Sister Site
On FaceBook
Follow us on Twitter
Our Google+ Page
Contact [E-Mail Florida Politics]
Site Feed
...and other resources

 

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.

 

Older posts [back to 2002]

Previous Articles by Derek Newton: Ten Things Fox on Line 1 Stem Cells are Intelligent Design Katrina Spin No Can't Win Perhaps the Most Important Race Senate Outlook The Nelson Thing Deep, Dark Secret Smart Boy Bringing Guns to a Knife Fight Playing to our Strength  

The Blog for Monday, December 05, 2005

Medicaid Fraud

    "When it meets for a special session today, the Legislature plans to approve testing Gov. Jeb Bush's Medicaid reform plan, starting in Broward and Duval counties." "Broward to test Bush's Medicaid reform plan". And doesn't this inspire confidence?
    If legislators pass the biggest overhaul of Medicaid in the state's history this week, part of their vote - at least as matters stand now - will have to be based on faith.

    The key change proposed for the Florida Medicaid system is to switch from an open-ended payment system to one where the state will pay managed-care organizations a predetermined, capped premium for each beneficiary.

    But the state's Agency for Health Care Administration, which has been working on Gov. Jeb Bush's reform proposal for more than a year, still has not calculated just what those premiums will be.

    And it doesn't expect to before the end of the special session called for this week in large part to pass the Medicaid reform.
    "Details missing as vote nears on Medicaid reform". There's a serious problem here, as the PBP editorial board observes:
    Not surprisingly, many administrative details are uncertain as Florida prepares an unprecedented change to its Medicaid program starting July 1. But when the Legislature meets today in a special session to enact the first stages of Medicaid privatization, it will not have the key factor: the budget. ...

    Senators have approached the change with appropriate caution. The uncertainty in the proposal has stoked fears among patients, and the absence of crucial financial details does not inspire confidence that the change will benefit beneficiaries - or even significantly help the state's bottom line. It's no wonder that lawmakers can't convince Floridians that the coming Medicaid changes are good. They have yet to be convinced themselves.
    "Medicaid reform doomed without budget to guide it".

<< Home