Florida Health News

Governor says it's 'raining' -- so use rainy-day fund

 By Christine Jordan Sexton
4/21/2008 © Florida Health News
TALLAHASSEE—Gov. Charlie Crist questions the Legislature’s move to cut $1 billion from the health care programs that serve the poor, elderly and disabled, urging lawmakers to borrow money from the state’s landmark settlement against big tobacco.

In a tight year that has brought a $5 billion reduction in revenue, top Republican legislators from both chambers reached a tentative agreement late last week on spending levels for the new fiscal year, which begins on July 1.

Under that agreement, there will be $7.12 billion in general revenue directed to health and human services spending. Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, and Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, will lead a group of legislators who’ll decide how that money should be spent.

In essence, the chambers agreed to split the difference between the spending plans they passed last week. That means the House must reduce its proposed budget by $82 million, while the Senate can raise spending by the same amount.

While both suggested slashing reimbursement rates for health care providers, the House proposed eliminating hospice coverage, scrapping the Meds A/D program and cutting back coverage to just prescription drugs for Medically Needy. Meds A/D serves older and disabled people of modest means who don’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, and Medically Needy covers those who have incomes that don’t stretch enough to cover their high medical bills.

The Senate, by contrast, has proposed limiting the Medically Needy program to pregnant women and children and eliminating money to provide poor adults with hearing aids and dentures.

Any issue on which the conferees cannot agree by Wednesday will be sent to Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, and Rep. Ray Sansom, R-Destin, budget chairs for their respective chambers. They said last week that any decision to tap into the Lawton Chiles Endowment, as the governor suggested, will be made by Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio. The endowment is a $2.2 billion reserve fund set up in 1999 with proceeds received from tobacco companies as part of a landmark legal settlement.

After focusing on skyrocketing homeowners' insurance premiums and property tax increases last year, Crist has focused his attention this year on the third issue he says is worrying Floridians: affordable access to health care. He unveiled his Cover Florida plan earlier this year.

Crist’s Cover Florida program would increase access to health care in a variety of ways, including creating two new commercial products that the state will negotiate on behalf of individuals and businesses. The plans would offer less extensive coverage than that the state requires for the market today, but neither would cost more than $150 a month, according to Crist’s office.

Crist’ even proposed new health programs, such as a $64 million initiative to dispatch workers into 14 counties with the highest rates of uninsured people. He would avoid deep cuts to public health spending by borrowing $400 million from the endowment, which is named after the former Florida governor who sued tobacco companies.

Crist conceded to reporters last week that he has failed to convince lawmakers to fund the program: “It’s a lean year, so what I’m trying to do is push forward what we have the ability to do. When you have a tight budget year you try to do what you can.’’

But Crist has not given up on using the Chiles endowment money. In an interview with the Miami Herald editorial board on Friday, Crist pushed again to use the money: “They’re rainy day funds. It’s raining,” the paper reported the governor as saying. “That’s when I think you use them….If not now, when?”

Tallahassee correspondent Christine Jordan Sexton can be reached at cjordansexton@hotmail.com.