Senator to hold Medicaid hearings

7/28/2010 © News Service of Florida

Senate President-designate Mike Hardipolos unveiled plans Wednesday for a multi-city tour of health care roundtables that would revive the Legislature's push to overhaul Medicaid, which now commands about one-quarter of the state's $70.2 billion budget. 

Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, will begin the tour Aug. 4 in Miami, completing the trip two days later at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Other stops are in Clewiston, Orlando, Tampa, Brandon and Gainesville.

At the stops, Haridopolos and local legislators will huddle with health care officials and seek what he called "patient-centered solutions to Florida's Medicaid crisis." 

The Senate last spring sought to expand a five-county Medicaid pilot program to 19 counties in an effort to draw 250,000 low-income Floridians into managed care. The House would have introduced Medicaid managed care statewide over the next five years to rein in costs in the program, which now serves 2.7 million Floridians. Lawmakers failed to reach  consensus. 

But they're likely to heighten attention on the program as they struggle next year with an anticipated $6 billion budget shortfall. The $19 billion state-federal health 
program, which covers low-income children and the elderly and disabled, is expected to add 328,000 more people to the rolls next year, thanks in part to the
state's continued high unemployment. 

The federal health-care overhaul, which Attorney General Bill McCollum is fighting in court to keep Florida and other states from joining, also is forecast as adding
another 1 million people to the rolls, although most of their coverage will be paid by the federal government. 

"Through all our committee testimony, it became very clear that ObamaCare, which will force an additional 1.4 million Floridians into our Medicaid system, is not a
workable or affordable solution," Haridopolos said. "But we are not content to just be against  something. We are committed to listening to Floridians and finding real solutions." 

--News Service of Florida is a subscription-based service. This article is reprinted by permission.