Governor Crist claims to have reinvented the wheel with Cover Florida but instead I believe it is more a case of reverse Darwinism. Cover Florida is the opposite of Health Reform and it should be kicked into the bowels of history along with Health Markets and a new Government Health Plan. Fix and Expand Medicaid and Most Importantly expand the current Health Programs administered locally to more People! Health Reform is needed not more Federal Government employees to screw it up! Democrats and Republicans are both literally incorrect on this issue. It is a question of survival at this point, and there is no money for new entitlements. Instead fix the old ones and expand those it is basic economies of scale! I will happily shut my doors tomorrow and go into a new business if I can offer health insurance for free to the people that deserve it. Cover Florida works? Jesus, Crist it is a step backwards. The eagle has landed alright and its upside down!
The Eagle Has Landed, but it looks lost!
BY MARC CAPUTO
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — A success rate of less than a tenth of a percent might not sound like much, but to Gov. Charlie Crist it’s campaign-trail bragging material for healthcare reform.
Crist’s new Cover Florida healthcare proposal has signed up only 3,757 people in a state with nearly four million uninsured. Meantime, an estimated 77,250 Floridians have lost health-insurance coverage since Cover Florida began releasing statistics in March.
Yet Crist touts Cover Florida as a “national model” and as a private-sector alternative to the government-run insurance plans of congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama.
“What’s happening in Washington, I don’t agree with,” Crist said recently. “We found a better way in Florida, by wanting to include the private sector to participate more.”
Under Cover Florida, Crist’s administration persuaded insurance companies to offer stripped-down health plans for stripped down prices. The more coverage a person receives, the more he pays. That, Crist says, gives consumers more choice and less government.
Crist’s government-is-the-problem tone, which has become more pronounced as he began stumping for U.S. Senate, contrasts sharply with the approach he took to stabilize insurance rates on homes, businesses and other properties in 2007.
Then, Crist advocated for more government-run insurance to compete with private hurricane insurance companies as they raised rates and dropped customers. Now, Crist opposes government-run insurance, while health-insurance companies are raising rates and dropping customers.
At least one-fifth of Florida’s population lacks health coverage. Florida’s uninsured rate is the third-highest in a nation where about 50 million people are uninsured, according to the latest U.S. Census figures.
Crist argues that health insurance costs are so high in Florida because state government requires insurers to guarantee expensive procedures and lengthy hospital stays. By lifting some mandates, the government allowed six insurance companies to offer less expensive Cover Florida plans.
But since the government still helps ration benefits in Cover Florida, some question the conservative bonafides of Crist’s plan, which is outlined on the website coverfloridahealthcare.com.
Two types of plans are available, catastrophic and preventive. Some plans have average premiums as low $50 a month. Others have deductibles as high as $5,000.
But for some Floridians, the costs might still be too high. For others, the limited services might not be worth the price, said R. Paul Duncan, a professor and director of the University of Florida’s Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy.
“Part of the problem is that when people think about insurance, they think about comprehensive coverage,” Duncan said. “So when they see limited coverage to accomplish a price reduction, they add it up and say, `I don’t think so . . . If I’m going to buy insurance, I want it to completely cover me.’ ”
SOME CREDIT OWED
But Duncan says Cover Florida deserves some credit, noting: “If people are going from nothing to something, that’s better than nothing.”
Crist says his proposals became instant successes the moment they helped one person.
Crist’s campaign website gives scant indication of the limited enrollment in Cover Florida.
“I signed into law a nationally recognized, market-based health care program to provide low-cost health insurance for nearly four million uninsured Floridians,” it says.
Mr. Crist has done an admirable job here but his good intentions are wasted on this Cover Florida plan. Instead of a new plan like this just use the money to give to the individual Florida counties most of them whom already have magnicent health programs for the uninsured Florida residents. This Cover Florida program is worse in some cases then being without coverage altogether as it disqualifies you from getting on an individual health plan from Medicaid or the County as most of them have rules that clearly state you must be without health coverage for 6 months prior to getting approved!
Additionally this plan has more holes then an 50 year old dartboard in an Irish pub.
On the contrary side, the new Miami-Dade Blue plan from Commissioner Joe Martinez (who deserves a kiss from all Miami residents) is very comprehensive and usually much less money. For more information on these programs visit our website at http://www.echealthinsurance.com/florida%20health%20resources.html.
[...] Republican attempts to “create bogeymen” and “scare the heck out of folks”. Go to Source Cover Florida Health Care Analysis Miami Herald and ECHealthInsurance.com – echealthinsurance.com 08/11/2009 Governor Crist claims to have reinvented the wheel with Cover [...]
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