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Jeb!'s Medicaid Eradication Plan

Ever since Social Security was enacted, in 1935, Republicans have been questioning its solvency. They continue to use those same type of arguments today, disingenuously proclaiming that we must destroy Social Security in order to save it, when, in fact, a tiny bit of tinkering, such as raising the Social Security taxable income cap, is all that is really needed to keep the program strong.

In Florida, Jeb! is taking a page from the GOP’s anti-Security play book in an attempt to gut the state’s Medicaid system which provides health insurance for the poor and disabled.

It’s all about money. The affluent self-described conservative ruling class is comprised of greedy, short sighted con men. Born into wealth and power, they see themselves as self made (Jim Hightower would say “born on third base and thought he hit a triple...”), and they combine a lack of compassion for the lower classes with an avarice that knows no bounds.

The goal is the killing of government services that benefit all citizens, and the preferred method is starvation. Public schools, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare - these are all described as unnecessary wastes of taxpayer dollars, and all are under attack.

First, they cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. The resulting loss of revenue predictably creates a fiscal crisis, and the only way out, we are told, is to cut spending on programs that the poor and middle class rely on to make ends meet and even to stay alive.

Jeb! has pushed through $11 billion in tax cuts since he became Governor. He’s proposing even more cuts this year, and, not surprisingly, he’s insisting that Medicaid is breaking the state budget’s back and that education spending will zoom out of control if the voter mandated class size caps are allowed to fully kick in.

His plan for Medicaid is to privatize by throwing money at HMOs, a group which has given heavily to the GOP cause. Jeb!’s other privatization schemes have largely crashed and burned, proving more costly than government run programs and often being accompanied by graft and corruption.

This time, he’ll insure the insurers by instituting draconian caps on Medicaid spending and greatly limiting prescription medications, thus providing EZ profits for the private healthcare providers. Many sick people will fall through the cracks and die, which should improve long term profits, but local municipalities and hospitals will be forced to pick up where the new Medicaid leaves off, a cost shift that will let Jeb! show a “savings” in the state budget.

Medicaid costs are rising, but that’s mostly due to a surge in enrollment - perhaps a result of the low wage jobs that have typically been created under Jeb! - and Medicaid’s per patient costs are rising less than private insurance per patient costs. In other words, Medicaid is more efficient than the private sector.

Further, much of Medicaid’s costs are paid for by the federal government. The costs to the state are much less than Jeb! would have you believe.

A close look at what we know of Jeb!’s proposal reveals that, much like his brother’s Social Security arguments, the “crisis” is an invention, a PR tool designed to provide cover for the real agenda: the destruction of the social safety net.