The Senate health and human services budget committee Wednesday approved a massive rewrite of Florida’s Medicaid program, aimed at steering 2.9 million low-income Floridians into health coverage provided by managed care companies.
But the legislation (CS/SB 1972) is now missing one of its more controversial provisions: liability limits for foster care providers. The sponsor of the Medicaid bill, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, quietly stripped the legal caps — leaving the fate of the move to separate legislation still advancing in the House and Senate.
Trial lawyers and children’s advocates have been fighting the lawsuit limits, especially in the wake of the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona and near death of her twin brother, Victor, allegedly at the hands of their foster parents who are now facing murder charges.
The Senate Medicaid bill would’ve capped financial awards for pain and suffering damages involving agencies providing foster care services at between $200,000 and $1 million, and limited economic damages at $2 million under the provision.
The state’s Department of Children & Families acknowledges the Barahona case stemmed from systemic failures within the agency and a private organization, Our Kids of Miami-Dade/Monroe Inc., which handled their adoption and could be shielded from more costly liability under the legislation.
Although no longer included in the Medicaid measure, similar legal shield legislation continues to advance, supported by agencies which say rising insurance costs are threatening their ability to continue operating.
Negron earlier defended the proposed limits saying, “There’s a delicate balance between the rights of individuals to seek redress for their injuries, while at the same time making sure that there are insurance policies for them to make claims against.”
UPDATED with comments from Scott while in Palm Beach County today (after the jump).
Florida voters disapprove of Gov. Rick Scott by a 48-to-35 percent margin, says a new Quinnipiac University poll that finds the new Republican governor’s disapproval ratings have more than doubled over the last two months.
A February Quinnipiac poll showed Scott with the same 35 percent approval rating, but with only 22 percent disapproving.
Voters overwhelmingly agree with Scott that taxes should not be increased to balance Florida’s budget. But by a 64-to-24 percent margin, they don’t believe Scott can keep his no-new-taxes pledge. And they disapprove of Scott’s overall handling of the budget by a 55-to-36 percent margin, with 53 percent calling Scott’s proposals “unfair” to people like themselves.
Lake Worth Drainage District representatives are trying to get Gov. Rick Scott to embrace legislation aimed at helping direct water from remote northwest Palm Beach County to the crowded cities that line its eastern shoreline.
First-year Rep. Lori Berman, D-Delray Beach, drew a warning this week from Scott’s office that the Republican governor was inclined to veto her bill for the special district (HB 741) if it continued on the path to approval.
On Tuesday, the House Finance and Tax Committee unanimously approved the measure — its third straight OK without opposition — leaving it tantalizingly close to full House action.
But district attorney Terry Lewis said he’s also stepped in, huddling with representatives of Scott’s office to ease concerns the legislation could add tax liability to taxpayers within the district’s 200 miles of Palm Beach County.
“It won’t,” said Lewis, although he acknowledged the measure will give the district authority to issue bonds to develop new water supply sources. “We’re talking. I think the governor’s office has a better understanding.”
Scott spokesman Brian Hughes said discussions are continuing over the bill.
The district is looking to build a reservoir, improve canals and other work to direct water from wetlands northwest of the C-51 canal toward southeastern Palm Beach County — where the people are.
The district also is seeking the Legislature’s go-ahead to become a water supplier to county and municipal utilities, once the work is completed.
Lewis said enhancing the supply will make water costs cheaper for county taxpayers. Also, the work planned by the district will create jobs — all part of his sales pitch to Scott.
Florida is very much up for grabs for GOP presidential candidates, a new survey from Democrat-oriented Public Policy Polling says.
Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich all get 18 percent and Sarah Palin gets 15 percent of the GOP vote in a hypothetical eight-candidate field. PPP tested a number of scenarios with various candidates in or out. One result: former Gov. Jeb Bush, who has said many times he’s not running in 2012, would get 30 percent in a Florida presidential primary if he changed his mind, with 14 percent apiece choosing Romney, Huckabee and Gingrich.
Donald Trump will headline a South Florida Tea Party rally in Boca Raton on April 16, the group’s chairman, Everett Wilkinson, confirmed this afternoon.
Part-time Palm Beacher Trump has been flirting with a 2012 run for president.
“I think he’s serious,” Wilkinson said. “This I think shows that he wants to talk to the average person and see how they feel about him running for president.”
The South Florida Tea Party’s first event, in West Palm Beach on April 15, 2009, featured longshot GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio as its keynote speaker.
This year’s event is scheduled for 1 p.m. on April 16 at Sanborn Square, 72 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he still expects the Florida Legislature to embrace his call for $2 billion in tax breaks, mostly for corporations and property owners, even though both the House and Senate are poised to approve budgets this week that ignore his pitch.
“I believe they will,” Scott said. “It’s something that’s very important to getting the state back to work. I really believe that we’ve all got to understand that we’re competing with 49 other states and a lot of other countries. And we’ve got to make this a state where we want to live, work and play.”
In cutting $1 billion from schools and imposing deep reductions in programs serving the poor, elderly and disabled, legislative leaders have said the budget-slashing would have to be even tougher to make room for Scott’s push to phase-out the corporate income tax and reduce property taxes going to schools.
Scott wouldn’t talk about the prospect of vetoing a budget without the cuts. “I’d rather not think about hypotheticals,” the governor said.
But lawmakers also have hinted they are wary of potential political backlash if they cut programs for some of Florida’s neediest — while handing out tax breaks. Meanwhile, higher tuition costs, electric rate hikes and property insurance boosts all look likely to emerge from a Legislature that claims an aversion to tax and fee increases.
Asked if life would get tougher for lower-income Floridians when the Legislature adjourns in May, Scott paused.
“I hope not,” Scott said. “First off, we’ve got to get this state back to work. The thing that impacts people the most in this state right now is the 1.1 million people without a job. If we take the different pieces…my goal is to make sure we’re reducing the cost of state government. But the biggest thing is, people need a job.”
Florida state Rep. Scott Randolph’s suggestion that his wife should “incorporate her uterus” to keep government out of it prompted his appearance last night on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show.
Randolph’s argument: Republicans believe in less regulation when it comes to businesses, but are trying to impose greater regulations on women with the 18 anti-abortion measures now floating between the two chambers. Randolph suggested his wife should “incorporate her uterus” to keep government out of it.
Meanwhile, the Florida ACLU launched a tongue-in-cheek website, “incorporatemyuterus.com,” urging women to “sign up” to protect abortion rights.
“Businesses get special treatment these days. If lawmakers and other politicians see your uterus and your body as a business, maybe they’ll work to get government out of the uterus regulation business as they do for every other company,” the website advises.
Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux announced this morning that he’s seeking the GOP nomination for Senate in 2012. LeMieux launched a campaign website and made a video announcement on the conservative Shark Tank blog, a favorite venue for Marco Rubio during his successful 2010 candidacy.
LeMieux joins state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, in the GOP primary race. Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton is also exploring a run. All are eyeing the seat of two-term Democrat Bill Nelson.
“Bill unfortunately is a big part of the problem, voting for too much spending, out-of-control spending in Washington,” LeMieux says in the Shark Tank video.
LeMieux was a top campaign operative and chief of staff to former Gov. Charlie Crist, then was appointed by Crist in 2009 to a Senate vacancy when former Sen. Mel Martinez retired. LeMieux compiled a conservative voting record in his 16 months on Capitol Hill and, after Crist left the GOP to pursue an independent Senate bid, campaigned against his mentor on behalf of Rubio last year.
Times are tough in state government — with an almost $3.8 billion budget shortfall prompting wholesale spending reductions and job cuts.
But Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that he’s added two new members to his staff, along with new duties for a couple more.
Lane Wright, formerly managing editor of the online Sunshine State News, has been named Scott’s press secretary. Current press secretary Amy Graham has been shifted to traveling press secretary.
Wright formerly was a TV reporter with West Palm Beach’s WTVX-TV, where he also was newsroom manager.
Also joining the Scott office is Karen Giorno, a former advance person for former First Lady Laura Bush. Giorno will be Scott’s director of external affairs.
A Scott deputy, Spencer Geissinger is checking out of Tallahassee — heading to Washington, D.C., as the governor’s director of federal affairs. Geissinger had been Scott’s campaign scheduling chief and directed his inauguration.
Geissinger is a former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush.
On the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination 43 years ago, immigrants and advocates rallied in the Capitol to protest immigration reforms one said would turn Florida into “67 little Arizonas.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is hearing a measure (SB 2040) this afternoon that would, among other things, authorize sheriffs to enter agreements with federal officials that would allow them to operate as immigration agents.
That could be dangerous, immigrant advocates cautioned, because that component was the cornerstone of Arizona’s much-maligned immigration reforms, many of which state lawmakers there are now rethinking.
The bill would “county-by-county implement little Arizonas all over Florida,” said Subhash Kateel, an organizer with the Florida Immigrant Coalition. “We don’t need 67 Arizonas in our state.”
Betzy Rega, an American citizen of Guatemalan descent, traveled from Jupiter to attend the hearing.
She said she’s afraid the bill would give the green light to police officers and sheriffs’ deputies for racial profiling.
Rega said her dark-skinned nephew was interrogated by Palm Beach County sheriffs two years ago and accused of kidnapping his own, lighter-skinned son.
Laws like Arizona’s are “feeding into the frenzy of racism,” Rega said. “We’re on a very dangerous track and it’s a form of abuse of power.”
Former West Palm Beach mayor Lois Frankel shouldn’t count on an easy glide to the Democratic nomination for the District 22 congressional seat of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.
Fort Lauderdale businessman Patrick Murphy, a political newcomer who signed his Democratic statement of candidacy for the District 22 seat on March 4, says he raised more than $320,000 in contributions by March 31 and kicked in about $30,000 of his own money.
Finance reports for the first quarter aren’t due until later this month. Frankel, who signed her statement of candidacy papers on March 14, told supporters she hoped to raise at least $100,000 through March 31.
WEST PALM BEACH — As of noon, about 80 demonstrators had gathered outside the Palm Beach County Convention Center to protest Gov. Rick Scott’s budget-cutting proposals as part of a national day of union-organized rallies tied to the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
Scott is scheduled to speak to an economic conference at the convention center sometime after 1 p.m.
Unions and other groups organized “We Are One” rallies around the U.S. today, primarily in reaction to measures to limit or end collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin and Ohio. They selected the anniversary of King’s 1968 assassination because the civil rights leader was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers at the time he was killed.
“If Dr. King were with us today, he would undoubtedly be marching against injustice in Madison, Wisconsin, and Columbus, Ohio, and on Capitol Hill, just as he marched against injustice in Memphis in 1968,” said Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President Wade Henderson in a conference call with reporters this morning.
In the digital age, should local governments still be required to use newspapers to get the word out to the public about what they’re doing?
Some conservative lawmakers object that it’s a mandate from Tallahassee and want to do away with it. They say it should be up to the local governments to put the information about zoning changes, meetings or other activities on the Internet.
But others, including former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, argued that doing away with the print notices would leave many Floridians, especially senior citizens, in the dark.
“I don’t think this is an optional issue. This is one that goes to the fabric of our society,” Kottkamp told the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee this morning.
Committee Co-chairman Jim Norman pressed him on whether he “believes in the mandate.”
Kottkamp didn’t waiver: “On this issue, absolutely, yes.”
Sen. Maria Sachs, a Delray Beach Democrat, agreed.
“We must never curtail the right of the people to have notice of what their government is doing. Ever. And I don’t care what the cost is,” she said.
Norman, R-Tampa, argued that the costs – in the range of $50 million per year statewide not including the amount collected some affected parties have to pay to cover the printing costs – could be better spent elsewhere.
“This is an attempt at a look at a mandated cost to make it more affordable for them to have health care. you can’t always have it both ways,” Norman, a former county commissioner, said.
The Screen Actors Guild weighed in Monday opposing House legislation that would lift state oversight of a wide range of professions, including talent agents.
Richard Masur, the chairman of the organization’s national legislative committee, sent a stinging letter to House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter, Park, budget chief Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, and bill sponsor, Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, warning the measure could kick open the doors to exploitation of wanna-be actors — especially kids.
Masur wrote, “HB 5005 could have the unintended consequence of making Florida a haven for unethical talent agents and scam artists, who would take advantage of uninformed actors and models, demanding fees and advance payments with no oversight, and tainting the reputation of our entire industry.
“In addition, the deregulation of talent agents leaves vulnerable and open the most susceptible in our society: children and young adults,” he added.
The legislation is poised to win preliminary approval Wednesday in the House. Interior designers, hair-braiders and several other professionals whose state licenses are threatened by the measure already have blasted the measure, which supporters defend as red-tape cutting.
On the 43rd anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, union activists around the U.S. today are staging protests to show “solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for.”
In West Palm Beach, protests are aimed at a midday speaking appearance by Gov. Rick Scott and at the Kravis Center, where stagehands have been in a long-running dispute with management.
Gov. Rick Scott’s office is describing his order cutting payments to community care providers for Floridians with Down Syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities as a step needed to keep an overspending state agency from going off a cliff.
But Palm Beach County organizations affected by the 15 percent pay cut are calling the move, ”draconian.” And they fear the next round of reductions certain in the 2011-12 state budget.
United Cerebral Palsy of South Florida President and CEO Dr. Joe Aniello said his agency expects to lose close to $500,000 in the next three months, and many patients with severe handicaps may find themselves without services they need to survive.
“(Scott) is all screwed up in his perception, and the information he is getting from his advisors is bad,” Aniello said of the cost-cutting.
With the House and Senate poised to approve state budget proposals next week, $3.3 billion separates the two sides — along with a smattering of ideology.
Some Senate Republicans are wary of efforts to extract $1.1 billion of the state’s budget shortfall from teachers, police, firefighters and other government workers in the Florida Retirement System.
Viera Republican Sen. Thad Altman went so far as to call budget chief J.D. Alexander’s plan, which pivots on 3 percent pay contributions by FRS enrollees, a “huge, huge mistake.”
The House pulls $710 million from government workers in its pension proposal. But the Senate’s budget proposal still spends way more than the House.
If senators want to ease back from public employee cash, there’s not many more couch cushions or cookie jars for lawmakers to find money. But watch for some senators to float some alternatives – more cuts, and maybe even some fee and fine-hikes – in the coming week.
Tampa Bay teachers’ groups and other Democratic allies plan to rally against Republican Gov. Rick Scott when he throws out the first pitch at tonight’s season-opening, Rays-Baltimore Orioles game.
But there’s apparently little doubt about what kind of pitch the crafty righthander — and political right-leaner — plans to throw tonight.
“It’ll be either down the middle, or probably more like high — and to the right,” Brian Burgess, the governor’s communications director, said Friday.
Along with the Scott boo birds in the sell-out crowd at St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, area Republicans are trying to rally supporters to balance out the numbers at tonight’s game.
Almost 90,000 poor, elderly or severely ill Floridians would lose government-paid prescription drug benefits beginning next year under legislation approved Friday by the Senate Budget Committee.
The move came a day after the same panel approved a red-ink plagued, $69.8 billion budget that included $450 million in cuts stemming from erasing the services.
But it also clouds the future treatment for some of the state’s most vulnerable patients, said Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston.
She said it’s time lawmakers look at tax or fee hikes to ease the deep cuts ruling Republicans are using to close an almost $3.8 billion budget gap.
“I know we need to cut,” Rich acknowledged. “But we’ve been cutting for three years now. We need to look at other options.”
The legislation (CS/SB 7174) affects more than 46,000 adults in the Medically Needy program, who would be limited to receiving state-paid physician coverage, losing drug coverage. State and federal financing of costly medication therapy, though, helps sustain many of these transplant patients and catastrophically ill Floridians.
The Senate also would end the state’s Medicaid Aged and Disabled Program (Meds A/D) in April, eliminating prescriptions for more than 42,000 low-income elderly and disabled Floridians.
Health and Human Services Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said he hoped to reinstate the programs during budget negotiations with the House, which has avoided the proposed cuts.
But he said the stark decision also makes a case for the Legislature’s proposed Medicaid overhaul, which would steer 2.9 million low-income, elderly and disabled people into managed care programs to save money.
“You can’t do everything,” Negron said of the budget cuts coursing through health and social service programs. (more…)
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