Critics of the federal health care overhaul supported by President Obama weighed-in Monday, praising the U.S. Supreme Court for agreeing to review the constitutionality of the sweeping measure.

Florida is among 26 states challenging the law, which the National Federation of Independent Business also wants to have overturned.

“I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the States’ challenge to the federal health care law,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has continued to spearhead a lawsuit first brought by her predecessor, fellow Republican Bill McCollum. ”Throughout this case, we have urged swift judicial resolution because of the unprecedented threat that the individual mandate poses to the liberty of Americans simply because they live in this country.”

Justices plan to hear arguments in March.  The dispute turns on Congress’s constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

Timing of the case only reaffirms that the health care overhaul will continue as a central theme of the 2012 presidential election.

 ”We are hopeful that by June 2012 we will have a decision that protects Americans’ and individuals’ liberties and limits the federal government’s power,” Bondi added. “We look forward to presenting oral argument and defending our position that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, that the entire law fails if one part fails, that the Anti-Injunction Act does not apply, and that Medicaid’s expansion is unlawfully coercive.”

 The Obama administration, which earlier asked the Supreme Court to review the legal challenges, said it’s confident the overhaul will be upheld as constitutional.

“ Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, one million more young Americans have health insurance, women are getting mammograms and preventive services without paying an extra penny out of their own pocket and insurance companies have to spend more of your premiums on health care instead of advertising and bonuses,” said Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer. “We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that she and the Obama administration agree on little involving the federal health care overhaul.

But both sides agree that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide the fate of the lawsuit brought by Florida and two-dozen other states.

“We’ve been saying from Day 1, from the day we filed this lawsuit, that the district court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals were simply going to be a pass-through to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Bondi, who joined with 25 other states Wednesday in asking  justices to take up the case, which last month ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, but upheld the rest of the law, including a major expansion of Medicaid.

Bondi decried the Medicaid provision as “coersion,” one that justices ought to strike.

The attorney general added, “The Obama administration did not seek a rehearing (in the 11th Circuit)…Therefore, giving us the ability to go to the Supreme Court as soon as possible.”

Without waiting for President Obama’s administration to appeal lower court rulings, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and 25 other states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the federal health care law is unconstitutional.

Florida led the challenge against the Obama administration, arguing that its requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance – also known as the “individual mandate” – is unconstitutional.

Last month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but upheld the remainder of the sweeping health care law, including a dramatic expansion of Medicaid.

But even Obama’s attorneys believe that much of the law relies on the requirement that individuals purchase health insurance.

Although several other cases are working their way through the courts, attorneys on both sides believe that a U.S. Supreme Court decision in Florida’s multi-state case will ultimately decide the matter.

Bondi’s lawyers argued that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act forces individuals to engage in commerce and is an imposition on states because of increased Medicaid costs which they cannot avoid.

“Both features of the Act raise constitutional issues that go to the heart of our system of limited government and the Constitution‘s division of authority between the federal government and the States. Of the various challenges working their way through the federal courts, only this case allows the Court to address both of these fundamental questions,” lawyers representing Bondi and the National Federal of Independent Businesses, wrote in the appeal filed today.

Bondi is holding a noon press conference on the filing today in the Capitol.

A federal appeals court tossed two Virginia lawsuits Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law’s insurance requirement, also known as the individual mandate.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed both lawsuits, ruling that neither the state’s attorney general Ken Cuccinelli or Liberty University had standing to challenge the law. The three-judge panel’s decision overturned a lower-court ruling invalidating the insurance requirement.

Thursday’s ruling now leaves an even score on other appellate rulings on the health care law. First, a three-judge panel in Cincinnati ruled in favor of the law. A more recent decision last month from an Atlanta three-judge panel ruling in a multi-state lawsuit headed by Florida that the individual mandate portion of the law was unconstitutional but left the remainder of the law intact.

And it heightens the importance of the Florida lawsuit, which observers say will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gov. Rick Scott, who made his fortune in the health care industry, launched his foray into politics more than two years ago with an effort to keep the proposed health care reforms from going into law. Scott is an outspoken critic of the law and once said fighting against it was one of the reasons he ran for governor.

Yesterday, lawmakers approved a request from Scott’s administration for a $3.4 billion grant drawn from the federal Affordable Care Act. The Legislative Budget Commission signed off on taking the cash to provide home visitation services to at-risk families.

Gov. Rick Scott and 28 other Republican governors added their names Monday to a letter urging congressional leaders to give states more authority to craft their own health insurance program for low-income, disabled and elderly residents.

The governors said the first step toward revamping Medicaid is to repeal the health care overhaul approved by Congress at the urging of President Obama. The same states are among those suing in federal court to overturn the 2010 measure, which the governors say will only add to rising costs.

 ”States should not have to seek waivers to manage their unique programs,” the governors wrote. “We must reassess and focus our efforts on reshaping how health care is delivered through innovation, creativity and responsibility –all demonstrated capabilities of states.

“ We must bring the antiquated Medicaid program into the 21st century and secure the program’s long-term integrity,” they added.

Although by adding his name to the list of GOP governors, Scott is deriding the need to gain federal approval, Florida plans to submit an application by Aug. 1 for just such permission. The Legislature this spring passed a Medicaid overhaul that will steer almost 3 million Floridians into managed care programs, beginning in 2013.

A public hearing on the Medicaid rewrite is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday in West Palm Beach at the Hilton Palm Beach Airport hotel, 150 Australian Ave.

Former Attorney General Bill McCollum is joining a Washington,D.C., law firm as partner — specializing in representing clients in legal matters before state attorneys general.

McCollum spent 20 years in Congress before unsuccessfully running for U.S. Senate in 2000. His four year term as Florida attorney general, 2007-2011, was sandwiched between another failed bid for Senate (2004) and losing to Rick Scott in last summer’s Republican primary for governor.

SNR Denton is an international law firm building a specialty pivoted around cases involving state attorneys general. While McCollum will work out of Washington, also joining the firm is former Indiana Attorney General Jeff Modisett, who will work out SNR Denton’s Los Angeles office.

“With the recent, dramatic growth in state Attorneys General consumer protection investigations involving key industry sectors such as financial institutions, energy, health care, telecommunications and the internet, it made sense for me to join a firm that is known for its deep bench strength in the public sector,” McCollum said, in announcing the move.

A few details are dribbling out Thursday afternoon on a rewrite of Florida’s Medicaid law — affecting 2.9 million low-income, elderly and disabled Floridians, but crafted as one of the Capitol’s best-kept secrets.

The Senate is expected to debate the legislation soon, with many seeing the proposed compromise for the first time on the eve of the scheduled end of the legislative session. But — no surprise at the Capitol — health care lobbyists are among those given a heads-up on what’s about to be sprung.

Lawmakers, basically,  have cobbled together portions of dueling House and Senate plans approved earlier this session that steer most of Florida’s Medicaid patients into managed care in a bid to shrink the program’s $22 billion price-tag, which currently commands about one-third of the state’s $69.7 billion budget.

Among the areas of compromise:

Regions: Senate had wanted 19; House, 8. The House-Senate package settles on 11 regions that track the Agency for Health Care Administration’s  service areas. HMOs, patient service networks (PSNs) and other managed care providers would compete in each;

Developmentally disabled Floridians: Will continue to draw services paid through the Agency for Persons with Disabilities new I-Budget system, effectively keeping these patients out of managed care for now. The Senate had advocated for this stance;

Medically Needy: Costly prescription drug and hospitalization services for these more than 40,000 critically ill and transplant patients would be maintained in the state’s budget. But these patients would have to enroll in managed care plans to obtain treatment;

Doctor payments: Increased doctor payments are “expected” from the managed care companies who gain control over Medicaid dollars. But the proposal stops short of the guaranteed payment boosts earlier pushed by the Senate.

There’s been tough talk. Ignored priorities. Charges of flip-flopping. Even a lawsuit.

But the political marriage of Republican Gov. Rick Scott and the GOP-dominated Legislature may yet end its rocky honeymoon stage with the first-year executive claiming some big victories and the party powerfully positioned for next year’s elections.

And, in the nation’s biggest toss-up state, the sharply right policies advanced by Scott and Republican super majorities in the House and Senate also will give Democrats potent weapons for next year’s campaigns.

“It’s been mean-spirited and an overreach by the Republicans,” said Rich Templin, a spokesman for the Florida AFL-CIO, a labor union allied with Democrats. “I think we’re going to be able to say to voters, ‘Look what they did. Who do you think cares about working families of Florida?’ “

But House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said he’s not worried.

“Two-thirds of the legislative branch is Republican so clearly, the people have sent a more Republican group of representatives to their government,” Cannon said. “So I think it’s only natural that you would see initiatives or proposals that will reflect that.”

Story

As budget talks on health and human services appropriations stalled, the Senate is moving forward with its Medicaid overhaul. Senate GOP leaders have not scheduled the immigration bill for Saturday, although only two hours of notice are required to add it to the agenda.

The Senate will take up its proposal (SB 1972) on Saturday along with dozens of local bills and Senate confirmations of Gov. Rick Scott’s appointees. But no word yet on whether the chamber will address immigration reform, still in flux as Senate Budget Chief J.D. Alexander, now shepherding the bill (SB 2040), weighs his options.

The House and Senate are both looking to put most of the state’s 2.9 million Medicaid patients into HMO-style plans. But differences abound between the two approaches. The Senate would divide the state into 19 regions, based on state court circuits; the House proposes eight.

The chambers are far apart on immigration reform as well. The House’s Arizona-style plan is on hold as the Senate considers a more moderate approach.
(more…)

House budget negotiators pushed back against the Senate Wednesday afternoon over health and human services spending — opposing pouring any money into programs that look designed to support the federal health care overhaul.

House lead negotiator Matt Hudson, R-Naples, rejected a series of Senate proposals, including one that would have increased Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors.

The $338.3 million item was floated earlier Wednesday by Senate Health and Human Services budget chief Joe Negron, R-Stuart, along with another $37.1 million offer to boost payments to dentists treating Medicaid patients.

Hudson said the House won’t accept anything that could be seen as preparing the state for implementing the federal health care rewrite approved by Congress and pushed by the Obama administration.

Talks will continue between the two sides later tonight.

But the House also shrugged at the Senate’s earlier pitch to revive about one-quarter of state spending for the Medically Needy and Medicaid Aged and Disabled programs — which provides costly prescription coverage to 90,000 Floridians, many in critical health.

The House is insisting these big-ticket programs draw full funding in the final state budget.

Hudson said he welcomed the Senate’s move away from its earlier plan to strip state dollars from the programs.

“But it certainly needs to be a bigger step, in my mind,” Hudson said.

In its offer, though, the House finds money for spending on these programs by reducing state payments to hospitals and nursing homes that care for Medicaid patients. The Senate sought to shield nursing homes from the rate cuts — but the House is proposing 8.5 percent reductions in state support.

Meanwhile, community care providers in the deficit-plagued Agency for Persons with Disabilities would face 4.5 percent rate cuts, in the proposal from Hudson.

Negron and Hudson also tentatively agreed to work on setting stricter guidelines for spending by the agency, which Gov. Rick Scott sought to discipline earlier this spring with 15 percent rate hikes aimed at easing a $170 million deficit that had grown over several years.

Negron said lawmakers wanted to preserve services for the Floridians with Down Syndrome, autistic, spinal bifida and other disabilities served by APD. But he cautioned, “Even if you are doing the Lord’s work, you can’t bounce checks.”

A federal appeals court in Atlanta has set June 8 for oral arguments in the the federal health care lawsuit but denied Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s request for a full court hearing.

The fast-tracked lawsuit by 26 states, including Florida, and the National Federal of Independent Businesses is ultimately headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are pleased that the 11th Circuit scheduled oral argument this June, so we can resolve this case and protect Americans’ individual liberties,” Bondi said in a statement. “This case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a case of such national importance should have no delay.”

Pensacola U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in January ruled the health overhaul unconstitutional, saying the U.S. Commerce Clause did not allow the federal government to require every citizen to buy insurance or pay a penalty. Doing so would give the federal government such sweeping powers that it could force its citizens to eat broccoli, he contended.

Vinson, who is based in Pensacola, declared the entire health act invalid.

Earlier this month Vinson put a stay on his ruling while the appeals proceed – meaning the health act could continue to be implemented – but gave the White House a week to appeal. President Obama’s administration filed the appeal on March 9.

Gov. Rick Scott, a former health care CEO, gave a longish response to a question about The Palm Beach Post’s report about a potential conflict of interest with his proposed changes to the state’s regulation of the health care industry.

Asked what his response is to critics who say his changes are designed to benefit Solantic, the chain of urgent care clinics Scott recently transferred ownership of to his wife Ann, Scott stayed on message.

“Everything that I want to accomplish in health care in Florida is basically what I’ve believed all my life. I believe in the principle that if you have more competition, it will drive down the prices. If you give people more choices, it’s better for the consumer and also help drive down price. I believe that we should reward the person that takes care of themself, eats right, doesn’t smoke, exercises, things like that. All those things are the things that I believe in and that’s exactly what I’m going to do as governor,” Scott said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi wants a full-court review of the President Obama administration’s appeal in the federal health care lawsuit.

Bondi filed a motion with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta seeking an en banc hearing, meaning the appellate review would be held before all 10 federal judges.

The reason for her request, Bondi said in a press release, “is to avoid any unnecessary delays that may arise if a three-judge panel decides the case and then refers it for a hearing by the full 11th Circuit.”

If the court agrees to her request, the case would be heard on June 6, according to Bondi.

“This case is so significant to all Americans that it needs to be resolved as quickly as possible,” she said in the release. “If granted, the petition would allow a faster track to the Supreme Court.”

On the second day of the legislative session, the Florida Senate approved a proposed constitutional amendment allowing Florida to opt out of the federal health care law, the chamber’s President Mike Haridopolos’ top priority.

The Senate approved the measure, (SJR 2) by a 29-10 vote, with just one Democrat – Bill Montford of Tallahassee – voting in favor.

The amendment, which would go before the voters next year, bans the federal government from forcing Floridians from having to purchase health care coverage, the “individual mandate” that is the subject of several federal court cases, including one in Florida. A Pensacola federal judge struck down the law as unconstitutional. President Obama’s administration appealed that ruling yesterday, and the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide on the case.

Lawmakers attempted to put a similar measure on the ballot last year, but the Florida Supreme Court struck it down saying it was confusing to voters. Haridopolos tweaked the language to try to meet the court’s muster this time around.

Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican, is running for U.S. Senate, and could possibly on the same November 2012 ballot as the amendment.

“This is about freedom. This is about federalism. This is not a unitary government where everything just comes on down high from government,” Haridopolos said before the vote. “This is about choice. This is about freedom and respecting the U.S. Constitution and…mostly, respecting individual rights.”

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston argued that the federal law already allows states to opt out if they come up with another way to make sure its citizens are insured.

“The fact remains that this is the law of the land and it is our duty to take the appropriate steps to implement this law,” Rich said. “Whether you like it or not, we have a federal system of government…Federal law remains the supreme law of the land.”

The proposed amendment would require 60 percent approval from the voters to pass. The House has not yet voted on the measure.

Arguing against the bill, Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, took umbrage at Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, calling the law “Obamacare.”

“Sen. Gaetz mentioned Obamacare,” Hill said. “At least somebody care.”

President Obama’s administration can continue implementation of the federal health care act, a federal judge ordered today in the multi-state lawsuit led by Florida.

But, in a 20-page order issued today, Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida gave the White House one week to file its appeal.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, leading the charge in the case involving 25 other states, had insisted that Vinson’s ruling quashed the law and that the state no longer had to implement it.

But in his “clarification” issued today, Vinson today wrote that his January ruling striking down the federal law as unconstitutional did not force White House officials and states to stop implementing the law.

But, he wrote, that was because he expected the Justice Department to immediately file an appeal in the case, expected to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The sooner this issue is finally decided by the Supreme Court, the better off the entire nation will be. And yet, it has been more than one month from the entry of my order and judgment and still the defendants have not filed their notice of appeal,” Vinson wrote.
(more…)

Attorney General Pam Bondi called President Obama’s administration’s request for clarification in a ruling overturning the federal health care law a delay tactic and urged the president to file an appeal to move the case along to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bondi yesterday asked U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson to reject the Justice Department’s request for clarification of his ruling that the health care law is unconstitutional. Some states, including Florida, have halted implementation of the law while awaiting an ultimate decision by the Supreme Court.

“Department of Justice’s motion to clarify is merely an attempt to delay the process when the order clearly required a halt to implementation,” Bondi said in a statement.

Vinson’s order amounts to an injunction on the health care law in Florida and the 25 other states in the lawsuit, Bondi said.

“Our memorandum states that time is of the essence in this matter, and the Court should deny the defendants’ motion for clarification as well as their thinly disguised request for a stay,” she said. “Everyone knows this case will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Department of Justice should join us in seeking an expedited appeals process. This issue is too important for delay, and we urge the
President to file an appeal in the appropriate appellate court, as was done in Virginia and Michigan. It is in the country’s best interest to present this case before the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as possible.”

Sen. Joe Negron wants fat Floridians and smokers to get healthy or else.

Included in Negron’s revamp of the state-federal Medicaid program – which Negron will release tomorrow – is a component aimed at what senators are calling “personal responsibility.”

Sen. Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who helped craft Negron’s bill, said Medicaid patients have to take control of their health care just as he had to do when his doctor told him to lose weight.

“We’re saying that an individual who’s been diagnosed as morbidly obese needs to be on a medically-directed program of weight loss to manage that health care problem that could turn into an increased taxpayer liability. The same thing with smokers,” Gaetz said.

The bill would require smokers and alcoholics and drug addicts to get treatment, Gaetz said.

Negron said his bill would include incentives for Medicaid patients to lose weight, quit smoking and stop drinking but did not give details about what they would be.

If they don’t get thinner and put down the smokes, Negron said their coverage could be cut off.

“It’s possible,” Negron, R-Stuart, said.

He said the Medicaid program currently includes a seldom-used provision that would allow the state to boot patients out.

“If you are non-compliant with your appointments, if you reject medical advice, there is a system in place under current law, which is rarely used but it has been used, …where someone would no longer receive services,” Negron said.

Healthier Medicaid patients will save the state money, Gaetz and Negron said.

“They not only compromise the quality of that person’s life they compromise the efficacy of any medical care that might be rendered but they drive up costs that are then shifted to the friends and neighbors who are actually paying the health care bill for the individual who is smoking,” Gaetz said.

The system can no longer tolerate someone “who is an alcoholic and wants to offload the medical consequences of alcoholism to the taxpayers of Florida,” Gaetz said.

Gov. Rick Scott’s budget plan includes a tax cut for businesses that would decrease corporate income taxes from 5.5 percent to 3 percent and roll back property taxes by $1 billion, the governor said in Tampa this afternoon.

Scott did not reveal details of how he plans to come up with the savings while also closing a $3.62 billion budget deficit but is scheduled to release his entire budget on Monday in Eustis.

Scott’s also blaming Florida’s budget woes in part on the federal health care law recently struck down by a Pensacola federal judge as unconstitutional.

A new Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters suggests President Obama, who carried the state in 2008, will have trouble winning it again in 2012. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson’s numbers are better, but not “terrific.”

Click here to read the poll.

Obama gets favorable job reviews from 47 percent and unfavorable reviews from 49 percent — statistically a dead heat in the poll of 1,160 registered voters with a 2.9 percent margin of error. A generic Republican challenger gets 42 percent to Obama’s 40 percent in a hypothetical 2012 match-up.

Nelson’s job approval/disapproval score is 45/21. In a hypothetical 2012 race, Nelson gets 41 percent support to 36 percent for an unnamed Republican. Says Quinnipiac’s Peter Brown: “Sen. Nelson is not in terrific shape but he is not in terrible shape either. His fate may rest with how President Barack Obama does in 2012 as Florida voters see the two men similarly on the issues.”

The poll shows Floridians favor repealing the health care law by a 50-to-43 percent margin and oppose continued U.S. fighting in Afghanistan by a 54-to-38 percent margin.

Gov. Rick Scott, who’s fought against federal health care reform since its inception, said today Florida won’t begin implementation of the federal health care law ruled unconstitutional by a judge yesterday.

“We are not going to spend a lot of time and money with regard to trying to get ready to implement that until we know exactly what is going to happen,” Scott told reporters this morning. “I hope and I believe that either it will be declared unconstitutional or it will be repealed.”

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson ruled yesterday that critical components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are unconstitutional. The Department of Justice indicated it would file an appeal and ask the judge to issue a stay on his order.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who picked up the challenge after her predecessor Bill McCollum initiated the lawsuit, said she and the 25 other states who’ve joined Florida’s lawsuit are trying to decide whether to by-pass the appellate court and seek resolution directly from the Supreme Court, which both sides agree will ultimately rule on the law.

Scott said he is not concerned about whether a delay in implementing the law in Florida could create problems if the Supreme Court upholds it.

Scott said state officials “will have enough time” to implement the measure before the 2014 deadline.

“The state won’t be caught flat footed,” Scott said. “We’ll be ready.”