Florida Health Insurance Minority Health Initiative
State Senator Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) on Tuesday welcomed reassurances from the governor’s office that a move to transfer the innovative Office of Minority Health into a sprawling division within the Florida Department of Health would be rejected.
The decision came less than 24-hours after the Tampa Democrat sent a letter to Governor Charlie Crist, urging him to rethink his agency’s pending action.
“The Office of Minority Health is currently on the cutting edge with regard to research, cultural competency and health equity policy,†Joyner wrote. “This momentum must be continued. Moving this office into a large department division will most certainly diminish the capability of the office to continue developing and implementing direly needed policies and strategies essential to eliminating health disparities among racial and ethnic populations.
“It is my deepest fear that the focus and progress of the program will be lost by swallowing this mission within an immense bureaucracy.â€
At issue was an abrupt decision by DOH to transfer the highly effective Office of Minority Health into the agency’s sprawling Division of Family Health Services.
Established by the Legislature five years ago, the Office of Minority Health was launched by the former governor as a way to close the widening gap in health care for minority and ethnic residents by providing community medical outreach services, among other programs.
Since then, the group has made significant headway in rolling back not only the disparity in health services available to such groups, but the high costs taxpayers shoulder due to over-reliance on indigent emergency room care.
This has been accomplished at little cost to the state. Staffed by five including the director, only three full time members of the unit are paid by the state; the other two are funded through federal grant money.
“Since its inception, the Office of Minority Health has been extremely effective, already touching 50,000 lives throughout Florida and saving taxpayers potentially millions of dollars,†said Sen. Joyner. “The medical treatment this office spearheads costs on average about $100. Compare that to the typical emergency room visit costing taxpayers roughly $1600. That’s a huge savings.â€
Cut this last legislative session by $1 million, the office has been struggling to complete a series of innovative initiatives, among them an agency-wide strategic and operational plan, along with a county-by-county database so that private health care organizations and residents can track community needs and progress.
The sudden decision to absorb into a larger, more cumbersome bureaucracy such a dynamic office noted as much for saving lives as for saving money made little sense, particularly in light of the economic conditions the state currently confronts, according to Joyner.
“Nationwide, our state comes in 45th in health care rankings, much of it due to the lack of health insurance and health care options for a large group of our diverse population. The worsening economy is only compounding matters.â€
The Senator said she was heartened to hear that the governor pledged to protect the group’s independence, while continuing to report to the agency’s deputy surgeon general.
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Find your answer for your own question related to health insurance
Tags: AFL-CIO, care, health, Insurance, news, obama, payer, policy, single
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I was just run over by the current system. I got caught without a job or insurance when the illness hit. The current system has screwed me good. I need help but I’m just outside the qualifications for assistance. I now owe over 20K and have no income.
helpsavemark,10001mb,com
hiiamrick.
I know. Insurance companies focus on people that try to defraud them. It happens. But insurance companies label them and then sub-consciously apply the label to many claimants and especially long term disability claimants. Insurance co’s look at long term disability as fraud in 45% of the cases. They work to deny 45% of claims. It starts with that attitude and allows them to guiltlessly defraud many of their clients.
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I have worked for a health insurance company and now I work at a physicians office.
Pretty neat to see both sides of an issue.
The system needs a lot of work, but universal is not the answer, I spend time abroad and those sytems are generally counter innovative. One thing is for certain your taxes will go way up.. Get rid of the curruption and kick-backs would be a starting point.
The video is hilarious.
Imgine if a corporation owned all the roads. Imagine if you had to buy your driver’s license. Basically imagine that roads were run the way airports are.
The lines at the DMV may suck but if a corporation ran it then they would charge you whatever you could afford to pay because they know you have to drive. So I can easily imagine it costing $100 a month for a license to drive.
And then there would be tons of restrictions and fees for things like “left turns”.
Think people.
I love people who blame trial lawyers for problems in the medical field. Have you ever done any research into how few med mal cases are successful these days? Very, very few of these cases are even filed anymore, and even fewer are successful. Why? Because state laws make them almost impossible to win. If you want to find someone to blame, blame the malpractice insurance carriers who are charging premiums and deductibles so high doctors can’t afford them. It’s the insurers who are getting rich.
Are people in your area required to use health insurance companies? I live in Ohio and it’s my choice to buy into a health plan. I have one from my employer that covers most things, I pay for the rest. It costs me a couple hundred buck a pay period. I’m not forced into the plan and I know it’s a for profit entity like any other corporation…so what’s the big deal?
Heres a rundown of money that the people who are blocking real reform in health care have received from the health care industry:
Specter ($4,02m)
Baucus ($2,8m)
McConnell ($2.7m)
When you take a look at Big Insurance, the non-presidential candidates who got biggest legalized bribes were the 7 senators tasked with the job of killing single-payer:
Nelson ($1.1m)
Baucus ($1.1m)
Lieberman ($1.03m)
Specter ($1.03m)
Schumer ( $0.98m)
McConnell ($0.93m)
Grassley ($0.88m)
breaking away from the free market is a bad idea for anyone with any ambition…why go to college and grad school and residency for an average salary…
The last time I had insurance the claims adjusers had Sarah Palin accents and nothing was payable. It was a PPO with $5,000 deductable. You had to use a network doctor. None of the doctors took new patients. The CEO of the company is one of the highest paid in the country. My friends in France go the doctor when they want for a tiny co-pay. The care is excellent.
The President and congress have great healthcare. I don’t hear any complaints from them and yet I see tons of insurance company assholes telling us we would not like it. Keep it as is. Take your nickel a post crap back to the insurance companies. Change is coming for the better. I would rather stand in line and get healthcare than get none.
With luck these thieves will be forced to get real jobs within a year of Obama’s inaguration. Suck it down bitches!
Hilarious video and oh so true, to quote an earlier commenter. Here’s the final verse of my Raging Grannies comment on American medical care [sung to the tune of 16 Tons]:
If Canada, Europe and Japan
Also Sri Lanka and Thailand
Could figure this* out, what’s wrong with us
Too polite and quiet, we don’t make no fuss!
*nationalized healthcare
haha this was good!
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I don’t understand the logic of “insurance companies aren’t held accountable for their initial agreements” therefore, we should have government run insurance. Reform the laws to hold the companies accountable – don’t just give it away to government. You want accountability? Go to the DMV or go through the court system to see how accountable the government is.
Actually, Obama’s plan gives you a choice. You can choose a public health insurance plan like Medicare, or you can choose a private insurer’s plan. And they ALL have to play by the SAME rulesnot cherrypick who they’ll cover or exclude by pre-existing conditions or changing your coverage out of the blue. If the private insurers truly are competitive & interested in providing health coveragerather than reaping windfall profitsthey shouldn’t have any problem. Right?
Jesus Fuckin Christ! We need to incarcerate the CEO’s of these Goddam Private Health Insurance Companies such as Aetna, etc. What these guys get away is absolutely criminal. I don’t know what it’s going to take for America to realize that we essentially need a single payer healthcare system in this country.
this is just so much ignorant crap.
The problem is with long term disabilities. Insurance companies hate paying these and will do whatever it takes to not pay, i.e. deny the claim outright, call it a pre-existing condition, cancel it on a technicality, force you to get evaluated by their own bought-and-paid for doctor. Whatever. It is contract fraud and all insurance companies have whole departments to work toward upwards of 45% claim denial. Most claimants give up eventually. It is fraud.
The problem is the third party. Whether it is an insurance company or the government, he who pays controls the transaction.
Right now, the insurance company controls a lot of transactions, but not under threat of criminal sanctions. If the government controls health care transactions, your care and choice will suck, and it can put you in jail.
Don’t get why people support a government which screws up pretty much anything it touches in charge of health care.
I have worked in this industry for many years. I have been to New Orleans. I was part of the Hurricane relief Team in 05 & 06 and you can not tell me this video is 100% true! Look up the AAJ top 10 worst insurance companies. It speaks for its self.
LOL! Hilarious but oh so true.