Florida Governor Proposes ‘Painful Cuts’ to Florida’s Medicaid Program

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has proposed a "radical" spending cap to check the state's "out of control" Medicaid spending, the St. Petersburg Times reports. According to the Times, the governor has recently sent state health officials to Washington, D.C., to discuss with federal Medicaid administrators plans to make "Florida a pilot program for reengineering Medicaid" by "keep[ing] [benefits] while serving fewer people." Bush told reporters last week, "We always want to do our best to avoid it, but when you have a Medicaid budget that's growing by double digits, and we don't deal with it through reform ... we're always going to have the issue of whether to cut back on providers or cut services." State Senate President Jim King (R) said, "We have got to make cuts, if not there, then somewhere," adding, "You can't do what we're doing and satisfy everyone." In response, health care advocates and lawyers who represent Medicaid beneficiaries are "raising the elimination of optional [coverage and] programs as the lesser of possible evils," the Times reports. According to the Times, Anne Swerlick, a Florida Legal Services lawyer who represents Medicaid patients, said that while the "things considered optional when Medicaid was created are now essential to health care," like prescription drugs," she is "willing to talk about beginning Medicaid reform with those programs." She added that she is concerned that Bush's proposal would "unravel a safety net that could never be pieced back together," the Times reports. However, state Sen. Durrell Peaden (R) said, "Just because the program is considered optional by the feds doesn't mean sick people can't go without," adding, "Somehow, we've got to cover their needs." Peaden is sponsoring a bill that would reopen the state's high-risk health insurance pool to cover people affected by proposed Medicaid reforms (Ulferts, St. Petersburg Times, 3/29).