By: The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board | The Florida Times-Union Jacksonville
The Florida House is where good ideas go to die.
Sadly, that statement has been validated too often on issues that affect the quality of life of millions of Floridians.
Take, for instance, health care for Floridians with mental illness and those suffering from substance abuse.
Medicaid is the prime funder for programs that deal with mental illness and substance abuse. But stubborn opposition by the House has prevented Florida from accepting federal funding to expand Medicaid. Yet other Republican-dominated states like Indiana and Ohio have accepted the federal funds.
Take affordable housing. As housing prices escalate, it becomes more difficult for working people to afford rent and house payments.
As a result, a growing proportion of Floridians are spending more than one-third of their income for housing. That puts pressure on everything in a household.
The “housing first” strategy is the major way that the homeless and those suffering from mental illness and substance abuse are put back on their feet.
Private industry can’t justify building affordable housing in many cases without subsidies.
Yet Florida has an innovative program to provide those subsidies called the Sadowski Fund. When a home is sold, a proportion of the revenue from documentary tax stamps go into a special trust fund. Those revenues are shared on a pro rata basis with each of Florida’s counties.
The program has worked brilliantly as a partnership among government, business and nonprofits.
Importantly, the Sadowski Fund creates jobs in the hard-hit construction industry.
Yet nearly every year, the Florida Legislature sweeps many of these funds into the general budget.
News reports indicate that both Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Senate want to fully fund the Sadowski Fund with $387 million. Then here comes the villains from the House, wanting to fund just $114 million.
Yet another bad example comes with Visit Florida. The House has the naive belief that Florida tourism doesn’t need state promotion, that it will be done magically by business.
The Senate budget includes $52 million for Visit Florida and the House includes nothing — zero.
Then there is Florida Forever, the land conservation program that has received strong support from voters over the years. Amendment One in 2014, for instance, received about 75 percent of the vote.
The Senate wants to fund $125 million, the governor wants $100 million and the House just $20 million.
It’s really an outrage when the House turns its back on the will of the voters.
When voters go to the polls this year they need to find out how their state representatives and senators stand on funding these key quality of life issues: health care, affordable housing, conservation lands and tourism.
Ask incumbents to justify votes that oppose the will of the people as shown in Amendment One. Ask challengers to take a stand on these quality of life issues.
The only way to stop all the bad actors in the House is to demand accountability.
Medicaid rule could hurt Floridians
An arcane federal rule on Medicaid could seriously harm Florida’s most vulnerable citizens, says Florida’s Medicaid director and the Florida Health Care Association, a group representing nursing homes.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services admits it has received over 4,000 protests over the federal rule while also defending it, reports the News Service of Florida.
Seema Verma, administrator of the federal program, referred to “shady” financing of Medicaid in the states as well as abuses that drive up costs.
Of course, abuses could happen but smart regulation would use a scalpel, not an ax.
The Safety Net Hospital Alliance estimates the federal rule may slash $631 million from safety net facilities like UF Health Jacksonville and a $250 million from teaching programs like the University of Florida’s medical school in Gainesville and Jacksonville.
If the cuts occur, reports The Associated Press, Florida would have to increase taxes (not likely), cut payments to hospitals and doctors (more likely) or restrict benefits (most likely).
Florida already uses managed care for most Medicaid beneficiaries and is not known for generous benefits. A federal cut of Medicaid funds can’t be justified.
Article last accessed on February 19, 2020 here.