 In March of 2005 the Florida Department of Children and Families announced that more than 29,900 Floridian employees (or their immediate family members) working for four large companies were enrolled in Medicaid, with Wal-Mart accounting for 12,300 of them. Those 29,900 employees cost Florida taxpayers $1 billion dollars. Scott will do all that he can to stop making taxpayers subsidize the healthcare costs of large corporations who won't provide affordable healthcare to their employees.
|
|
|
While Scott plans to change the system, his opponent has simply followed the big HMO money she receives by voting to privatize Medicaid and begin rationing healthcare for our elderly and poor -- including more than 1 million children. Despite yearly double-digit increases in private insurance costs, Republicans like my opponent have started the process of handing over $11 billion in taxpayer money to HMOs. This privatization will restrict healthcare, and if their agenda is not opposed, it will lead to further privatizations of Medicaid, Medicare and, eventually, Social Security. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On the other end of the spectrum, high healthcare costs are making other Florida businesses uncompetitive and their employees work more hours because businesses cannot afford to hire additional employees. Nearly one in five Floridians are uninsured. That's about 4 percent higher than the national average.
Our healthcare system must provide more preventive care at clinics and other low-cost facilities. When uninsured people (and even people with insurance) don't have access to regular, low-cost preventive care, they turn to extremely expensive emergency rooms. This increases everyone's health care costs. We can provide incentives to people and employers for more preventive care that can reduce costs.
More than 20% of all Medicaid spending was for drug prescriptions -- more than $1.8 billion in 2003. Importing drugs or using other market factors could significantly cut those costs in half. We can demand more from insurance companies that do business in Florida. Keeping Floridians insured must be their top priority.
Providing affordable healthcare for ALL of Central Florida is one of Scott's top priorities.
|
|
|