Editorial: State should hit brakes in Medicaid experiment
Source: Daytona Beach News Journal (FL), October 22, 2007
Even as former Gov. Jeb Bush was pushing the state into a massive privatization of Medicaid, advocates were warning: Not so fast.
Bush didn't listen. He wanted sweeping changes, statewide, and he wanted them rapidly. He didn't want to hear that private networks weren't ready to take on a huge influx of patients. He wouldn't listen to those who worried about forcing a medically vulnerable population to choose among health plans to find the one that best meets their needs. He seemed to revel in the attention Florida got from other states for pushing ahead with changes with precious little evidence that they would save the state money.
Fortunately for vulnerable Floridians, lawmakers refused to swoon at Bush's feet. They agreed to a limited privatization plan in two counties -- Broward and Duval -- urbanized areas where the program would have the most likely chance of success. And they included explicit provisions to keep Bush from expanding the program without legislative approval.
A new report (.pdf) by the Agency for Health Care Administration's inspector general, Linda Keen, suggests the legislative caution was well-founded -- and that Gov. Charlie Crist has inherited a mess. Bush's "big hairy audacious" reforms, as he called them, aren't working out too well.