Long-term care insurance is expensive, but the costs of long-term care are far more so. The experiences of local residents and businesses contending ding with reality almost everyone will eventually face illustrate the dilemmas of aging in a society with a meager safety net. A special report.
medicaid
The Missing Link in Ever-Rising Health Care Costs: Personal Responsibility
Car insurance costs go down when drivers drive responsibly for a few years. A similar approach to health care could help bring costs down, but first, Milissa Holland argues, people must take responsibility for their own health and lifesrtyles–and the way they seek out medical help: the ER is usually not the answer.
Beyond Doctor’s Orders: When Health and Fitness Are Not Always a Matter of Choice
The discipline it takes aside, getting healthy can be costly, writes Milissa Holland, in many more ways than one: healthy food is more expensive, exercise isn’t always as easy as deciding to do it, and even health insurance plans for the poor are becoming intractable. An invitation to discuss a central issue in most people’s lives.
State Health Agency Corrects Inflated Costs of Obamacare Scott Had Used to Oppose Reform
Florida’s costs could be as low as $3 billion over 10 years — a huge drop from the nearly $26 billion figure that AHCA produced in a report last month. Even with the changes, it appears that the Scott administration believes that the state’s final tab over 10 years would be higher.
Rick Scott’s Lies: How Governor Intentionally Kept Using Wrong Medicaid Estimates
The state’s chief economist has warned the staff of Gov. Rick Scott that his Medicaid cost estimates are wrong, but Scott keeps using them anyway, skewing Florida’s costs under the Affordable Health Act.
Quality Concerns as Florida Medicaid Moves Millions of Poor and Elderly to Managed Care
Senior said much of the state’s negotiations with federal officials have focused on safeguards to make sure that Medicaid’s new Florida version would be based on providing services in people’s homes and communities and would not be a “nursing home light” system..
Obamacare or Bust: U.S. Tells Florida to Either Expand Medicaid or Lose Out on Billions
Under Obamacare the federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost of the expanded eligibility from 2014 through 2016. Florida and other states questioned whether the federal government also would cover the full costs for a partial Medicaid expansion. The Obama administration said no.
Almost 27% of Flagler Residents Under 65 Are Without Health Insurance; Reform Would Help
Obama’s health care reform would almost eliminate the proportion of uninsured, but Gov. Rick Scott’s refusal to join reform’s expanded Medicaid eligibility means that many of Flagler’s 16,774 eligible residents will be shut out of the benefit.
Florida’s Doctors Are Nation’s 3rd Worst When It Comes to Accepting Medicaid Patients
Only 59 percent of doctors in Florida accept accept new Medicaid patients, well below a national average 69 percent. Better reimbursements would improve both rates, but that’s not about to happen in Florida, which is rejecting increased federal aid.
Flagler Mulls Joining Lawsuit Against
Florida Over Reduction in Medicaid Payments
Flagler County commissioners will decide Monday whether to join a Florida Association of Counties lawsuit challenging the state’s decision to try to tap counties for tens of millions of dollars in disputed Medicaid money.
Florida’s Poor and Elderly Again Brace For Cuts As Legislature Prepares for Tuesday Kickoff
Gov. Rick Scott is proposing further deep cuts in Medicaid payments to hospitals, while lawmakers have filed bills that would help shield emergency-room doctors and workers from costly malpractice lawsuits.
800,000 Floridians, Most of them Children, Could Be Booted Off Medicaid Coverage
More than 660,000 of those currently covered by Medicaid are children, and could be booted off the rolls if their parents have to pay $10 a month in premiums, as the Florida Legislature is proposing.
Florida’s Prescription Express: Doctors Shoving Drugs at Poor Patients, for Millions
Florida regulators are finally getting around to stopping doctors from over-prescribing drugs, some of them risky, to Medicaid patients, and at times to the wrong patients, after enabling the practice despite signs of misconduct.
End of “Medicaid Tax Gimmick,” a Deficit Drag, Would Cost Florida Nursing Homes Millions
Medicaid payments to nursing homes were cut by $187.5 million this year. The end of the Medicaid “gimmick” would reduce nursing home budgets further, but help balance the federal budget deficit.
From Nursing Homes to Medicaid to Pill Mills, Florida Re-Writes Austere Health Rules
Health care reform opt-out, broad abortion restrictions, managed care for 2.8 million Floridians, less care for patients in nursing homes, Healthy Start slashed: Florida redrew the state’s health care map in the 2011 legislative session.
2011 Session Under GOP Supermajority: Stingier, Looser, More Preferential Florida
The 2011 Session revamped Medicaid, teacher pay and pill-mill regulations, cut the budget and brooked favors with insurers, but culminated in corrosive revolts among Republicans as anti-union and anti-immigration bills failed.
More Losers Than Winners as HMOs Skim Off Florida’s $20 Billion Medicaid Overhaul
Managed-car plans will take over almost all of Florida’s 2.8 million Medicaid patients. The overhaul does nothing to change the status of 3.8 million uninsured Floridians.
30 Days to Go, $3.8 Billion to Find: Lawmakers Set to Flatline Health Care Programs
Hospitals, Medicaid, the poor, the very sick and the Department of Health would all face severe cutbacks as the Legislature enters its session’s second half, with abortion, pill mills and medical malpractice issues yet unresolved.
Swelled by Supermajority, Florida GOP Signals First Assault Victim: Medicaid
A quick special session in Tallahassee would provide $9.7 million for Gainesville’s Shands teaching hospital and lay down markers on overhauling medicaid, the health care program for the poor. One idea: forcing all beneficiaries to enroll in managed care.
United Healthcare Pledges 75-Day Extension for Flagler Clients Despite Hospital Dispute
United Healthcare’s pledge lessens thousands of Flagler residents’ anxiety over getting care at Florida Hospital Flagler, but only temporarily.
Merchants of Greed: How Florida Hospital and United Healthcare Bargain Over Your Body
On Aug. 15, half a million central Floridians, and thousands in Flagler County covered by United Healthcare, including children on medicaid, will be denied insured coverage at Florida Hospital’s facilities, including Florida Hospital Flagler.
Where Spin Meets Bull: Florida Hospital’s Lars Houmann on the Dispute With United Healthcare
A three-and-a-half minute video by the Florida Hospital CEO is a window into the company’s deception and disingenuity.
Feds, Not Florida, Will Pay for Medicaid’s 1 Million New Beneficiaries
Attorney General Bill McCollum’s claim that health reform forces Florida to shell out too much money for Medicaid is demonstrably false.
Florida Medicaid Audit Reveals Shockingly Poor Oversight
Lax state oversight of Medicaid is fueling runaway costs in the health program covering 2.7 million poor and elderly Floridians.
Florida House: Medicaid “Reform” for All?
House leaders late Monday released a proposal that would require almost all beneficiaries statewide to enroll in managed-care plans — including seniors who need long-term care.
