This great article about the Health Care Reform Law was published on TampaBay.com today.  It has some great information regarding why Florida has rejected money, other states' actions, and reactions to Florida's decisions.

"In fighting health care law, Florida rejects millions in federal aid

By Janet Zink, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

In Print: Wednesday, June 8, 2011

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TALLAHASSEE — Florida already leads a lawsuit challenging the federal health care law, but state officials are going a step further and ignoring the law almost entirely — rejecting millions of federal dollars to provide health care for retirees, seniors, children and people with disabilities.

So far this year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature have returned or refused to spend at least $19 million in federal money associated with implementing the health care law. Scott also has stopped any state planning for the creation of mandated health care exchanges, which will allow consumers to comparison shop for health insurance plans.

The decisions put Florida at odds with conservative governors in Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin, who are fighting the constitutionality of the health care law on one hand and planning for it on the other.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta is scheduled to hear arguments today in the suit pitting 26 states against the federal government.

"Like a lot of other states, Florida is involved in the lawsuit itself, but there's a big difference," said Eddie Vale, a spokesperson for the Washington-D.C.-based nonprofit Know Your Care, established to educate people about the federal law. "While other states are suing, they are still going ahead with passing regulations that are necessary, working with Health and Human Services where necessary to bring the benefits of the federal health care law to their residents."

Take Wisconsin and Indiana, which are parties to Florida's lawsuit. Governors in both states have signed off on planning for the health care exchanges required by the federal law. In Florida, Scott has not.

Pennsylvania, also part of the lawsuit, has 2,684 residents signed up for a program that provides low-cost health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer and diabetes, who can't buy coverage anyplace else. Pennsylvania runs its own program with funding from the federal government and has more enrollees than any other state.

In Florida, only 770 people are enrolled in the same plan, and the state has declined to run its own program.

Texas has accepted $276 million for a program that provides health insurance to people over 55 who have retired but aren't yet eligible for Medicare. Much of that money is going to Texas state employees.

Florida, by contrast, has accepted only $15 million for the early retirement program — with local governments taking the money. Scott is planning to accept $37 million for the program, but that was because the payout was agreed to by former Gov. Charlie Crist, officials said.

The issue in Florida isn't necessarily over the money, it's the portion of the federal law that requires people to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty. That requirement is to take effect in January 2014.

Florida filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the so-called "individual mandate" provision moments after President Barack Obama signed the act into law in March 2010, arguing that the government can't force people to buy a product..."

To read more click: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/in-fighting-health-care-law-florida-rejects-millions-in-federal-aid/1174120

Great Article from Humana about Healthcare Reform

Washington's week

This week and next should be relatively quiet in Washington, with the members of the House and Senate back in their districts for an Easter break. They aren't due back in the Capitol until May 1. Meanwhile, President Obama is scheduled to travel to several U.S. cities to promote his framework for cutting the deficit.

Before leaving Washington, the House and Senate ended months of haggling over the 2011 budget. They agreed to legislation that cut about $39 billion. Bipartisan majorities in both chambers voted to override both the conservative complaints that the budget didn't cut enough spending, and liberal complaints that it cut too much from social programs for the needy. "Welcome to divided government," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. Steny Hoyer, the minority leader, quoted Henry Clay: "If you can't compromise, you can't govern."

Here are a few of the cuts that affect health care:

• $2.2 billion eliminated for the implementation of health insurance cooperatives
  
• $78 million from research on health costs, quality and outcomes
  
• $600 million from community health centers
  
• $35 million from rural health programs
  
• $119 million from the building/facility budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A number of health-related bills also were introduced last week, including these (many bills are introduced that are never seriously considered):

• Repeal the health insurance industry tax established by the health reform law (introduced by a House Republican)
  
• Repeal the CLASS program, a voluntary insurance program established in the health law to help seniors pay for services and supports (introduced by a Senate Republican)
  
• Require private insurers and federal health programs to cover medically necessary food (introduced by a House Democrat)
  
• Repeal the part of the health reform law that eliminated the Medicare open enrollment period for January, February and March (introduced by two House Democrats and two House Republicans)

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Supreme Court decided to wait to decide whether to fast-track Virginia's lawsuit against the health reform law. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has asked that the case be allowed to skip the lengthy appeals process and go directly to the high court so the states won't spend a lot of time and money implementing a law that may be declared unconstitutional.

But the biggest topic of conversation in recent weeks has been the 2012 budget. That conversation is likely to be long and arduous, since it has many big parts – for example, competing visions of government, of what makes America great, of the social contract – and a difference of opinion over the superiority of various economic models.

Sun Sentinel's Health Reform Article

This morning's Sun Sentinel had a great article in it about Florida and the Health Care Reform.  I thought I would share it with all of you:

"Feds may act if Florida stalls on health-reform law

Hoping legislation will be repealed, Scott rejects grants, blocks compliance

By: William E. Gibson, Staff Writer

WASHINGTON ——

If Florida leaders refuse to carry out the new national health care law, Uncle Sam is prepared to take charge on behalf of the state's consumers.

One year after President Barack Obama signed the health care overhaul into law, federal officials are urging Florida and other reluctant states to shape it to meet their needs and to take advantage of millions of dollars of federal planning grants. Failure to participate, officials warned this week, means a loss of state control.

Florida and other states, for example, must show by 2013 they are set up to provide a health insurance exchange, an online service for consumers to compare coverage plans and shop for affordable rates. If states are unwilling or unprepared, the law requires U.S. officials to step in and make a federally run exchange available for residents at the start of 2014.

But Florida Gov. Rick Scott, backed by fellow Republicans in the Legislature who strongly oppose "ObamaCare," has refused $2 million in federal planning money and ordered state agencies not to implement the law. In addition, Florida has challenged the law in federal court, in a lawsuit filed before Scott was elected in November.

The standoff reflects an ongoing political debate and a high-stakes gamble by Scott and other critics, who are counting on Congress to repeal the law or federal courts to rule it unconstitutional. Other states are quietly preparing to comply, even while challenging some of the law's provisions in court.

"Of all the states, Florida is obviously one that has been the most reluctant to get out in front and engage in innovative ways to exercise their flexibility to implement the law," said Paul Dioguardi, director of intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in an interview this week.

"What Governor Scott is really leaving on the table is the ability to implement the law of the land in a way that makes sense for Florida," Dioguardi said. "What we're left with is this federal fallback mechanism, which would be a missed opportunity for them to do it in a good Florida way."

Scott, who also refused more than $2.4 billion of federal high-speed-rail money, is trying to wean Florida from federal aid and to block mandates imposed by the health care law. Those mandates, scheduled to take effect in 2014, include expansion of Medicaid and requirements that individuals obtain health insurance.

The governor has told reporters in Tallahassee that state officials were "not going to spend a lot of time and money" to implement the law. But he promised that "the state won't be caught flatfooted. We'll be ready" if it should be upheld by the courts.

In the meantime, he has refused a $1 million grant to plan for the insurance exchange and another $1 million grant designed to track premiums to prevent unreasonable rate hikes.

"We believe the federal law is unconstitutional, in which case it won't be enforced," said Jack McDermott, spokesman for the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

A federal judge in Pensacola has declared the law unconstitutional, though the law has been upheld by other courts. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to ultimately settle the matter.

The law's proponents accused Scott on Wednesday of resisting implementation out of political spite.

"It's purely a result of his venom toward the fact that it was passed," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston. "I think he needs to stop acting childish, be a grown-up and do what he is supposed to do to make sure the state is ready to implement the law."

Republicans in Congress vowed Wednesday to keep pressing for repeal.

U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, called the law "a costly and unworkable maze of new federal agencies and empowered federal government bureaucrats who determine the what, when, where and how of health care."

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the law "is adding to our nation's debt, destroying jobs and threatening current coverage plans that people are satisfied with."

Meanwhile, provisions are gradually kicking in, and other states are tapping federal grants designed to help consumers, prevent fraud, develop the health care work force and prepare for the insurance exchanges.

"You can play catch-up, but the longer you wait, the harder it gets," said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, an independent group of state policymakers.

Weil said most states are eager to run the exchanges, which will be funded by the federal government. But he said Floridians might be better served by a federal exchange.

"If a reluctant state doesn't want to do it," he said, "it may be better for the consumer for an enthused federal government to take the lead.""