Some of us in Colorado don’t realize how lucky we are to have a governor like John Hickenlooper. Yesterday, Hick was roundly criticized by the local Tea/GOP for vetoing a mean-spirited bill they passed, which would have required that certain parents enrolled in our state health care plan pay a 1,000%-higher premium for their children’s coverage.
Fiscal watchdogs such as Sen. Greg Brophy and House Speaker Frank McNulty actually said in public that a family of four, making less than $56K (that’s total income for all four) don’t need the help with health care, because they already have all kinds of extra cash which they are currently spending on “beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets.”
The Tea/GOP folks claim that the change would have saved the general fund $1.2 million, mostly because the affected families would not be able to afford the higher premiums and would be forced to drop out of the program.
Governor Hickenlooper told the Tea/GOP in advance that he would veto the bill, but they passed it anyway, so they could demonstrate just how they could have made yet another step to solve our budget crisis on the backs of those who can least afford it. The Tea/GOP called this total waste of time an “important step on welfare reform.” And they are currently ranting about it in public like Governor Hick has just stabbed them in the back.
Now let’s compare the way Colorado Governor Hickenlooper just acted on behalf of low-income sick folks to the most recent actions of hero/Tea/GOP/health insurance executive/billionaire/megalomaniac Governor Rick Scott of Florida.
Scott just directed that all applicants for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program must take a drug test, to make sure that they are not squandering state funds on…uh…drugs.
In a press release, Gov. Scott stated: "While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction," Scott said. "This new law will encourage personal accountability and will help to prevent the misuse of tax dollars."
But Scott didn’t just direct away the rights of all those indolent, drug-addicted, beer-swilling, cigarette-smoking, lottery- ticket-buying, poor folks. No, Scott is further requiring mandatory drug testing for all prospective state hires, and random drug testing of current employees in agencies whose directors he appoints. Colorado State Republicans like Brophy and McNulty must be so proud of Floridians like Rick Scott. If only Colorado had a Governor who would take such bold action like that!
It is not just an ideological thing with Scott. Did I mention that he was a health care executive? He made his billions off of the private health care industry. When he became Governor, he divested himself of all interest in one of his companies named Solantic, an urgent care chain facility that he co-founded. By divest, I mean that he put it all in his wife’s name.
And you will never guess what is one of the more popular “private and confidential services” that Solantic provides at $35 a pop!
Scott’s mandatory drug testing directive looks especially dodgy when combined with his push to privatize Medicare and move Medicaid into private HMOs. Solantic does not take Medicaid but does business with private Medicaid HMOs.
Aside from the Medicaid issue, hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Floridians will now have to pay…uh…some company to test them, if they want to keep their jobs/benefits with the State. Scott thinks that Solantic should, but is not required to be left out of the impending massive government contract for pee pee services. Some company is going to rake in $2-3 million a year, just on the testing alone. If Scott’s plan to privatize Medicare/Medicaid (otherwise known as the Tea/GOP/Paul Ryan Plan) is realized, it will bring in billions to Rick Scott’s wife’s business.
Florida has a $3.6 billion deficit, but Governor Scott thinks that the extra $3 million Florida is blowing (giving to his wife) on mandatory drug testing for poor welfare recipients and middle class state workers will “give Floridians peace of mind.”
At first you wonder how this guy got elected, then you read that he spent $73 million of his own money to get there. Still, the founder of health care mega-Corp Columbia/HCA was linked to a mega-scandal, well in advance of his recent purchase of the governorship.
Scott was kicked out of Columbia/HCA by his own board of directors in 1997 amid the nation's biggest health care fraud scandal ever. The company's guilty plea and payment of $1.7 billion to settle charges including the over-billing of state and federal health programs was taken as a repudiation of Mr. Scott's relentless bottom-line approach.
Though Scott was not directly implicated in the fraud scandal, his maniacal quest for profits was widely believed to have provided the incentive for the fraud. Floridians voted Scott into office and are already choking on that decision. They should visit an urgent care facility.
Now that we have done this little comparison of the two different governors, noting their two radically different approaches to health care for the poor, ethics, politics in general, and just plain old morality, Ole Hick is looking more like a saint than the traitor that Brophy and McNulty are making him out to be. These local yokels ought to thank their lucky stars that they have a governor like John Hickenlooper, who looks out for the little guy, instead of a criminal like Rick Scott, who only looks out for himself.
You Tea/GOP folks should be careful what you wish for. Can you say TANCREDO?
J. Brandeis Sperandeo
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