In their ongoing effort to make America sicker and to ensure that more Americans die before their time, Trump and his Republican party have decided to spend more money to cover fewer people less well in Florida:
The shift involves funding that the federal government provides to help hospitals defray the cost of caring for low-income people who are uninsured. Under a deal with the State of Florida, the federal government has tentatively agreed to provide additional money for the state’s “low-income pool,” in a reversal of the previous administration’s policy.
The Obama administration balked at providing more money to help hospitals cope with the costs of “uncompensated care” for people who could be covered by Medicaid. If Florida expanded Medicaid eligibility, the Obama administration said, fewer people would be uninsured, and hospitals would have less uncompensated care.
This is, of course, not a health care policy. It’s simply the latest accomplishment in the fundamental goal of Republican politics since 2009: anything the Black guy did must be undone.
“Florida is just being paid by taxpayers not to expand Medicaid,” said Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from March 2015 to January of this year. “The low-income pool is essentially a slush fund,” Mr. Slavitt said, “and it’s a really inefficient way to pay for medical care.”
But hey, maybe it could it work, right?
Come on! This is the Florida Republican establishment we’re talking here. If it ain’t nailed down, it’s getting stolen:
Two House Democrats from Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Kathy Castor, said that after receiving the commitment of federal funds, the Florida Legislature was now moving to adopt a budget that includes cuts in state Medicaid spending. “It’s outrageously irresponsible,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.
Ms. Castor said that “it would be more efficient to expand Medicaid so people would have coverage, rather than running up huge bills at hospitals that need to seek reimbursement from the low-income pool.”
Ladles and Jellyspoons: your modern Republican party. It’s better to pay more money to achieve less than it is just to make government work with the tools it has. There is no compromise with these folks.
Ni shagu nazad!
Image: Sebastian Vrancz, Soldiers plundering a farm during the Thirty Years’ War, 1620
ETA: Sorry, David, for poaching on your patch!
The Republican Health Care Plan: ER’s For The PoorPost + Comments (178)
