The Miami Herald has published an in-depth article regarding the pilot program in south Florida. While it is showing a significant cost saving for the state, it appears the jury is still out as to whether this is the result of greater efficiency or reduced care.
Can Florida’s Medicaid reform plan be the model for the nation?
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
JDORSCHNER@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Quietly, over the past six years, an experiment in providing healthcare for the poor has been playing out in Broward and four other counties around the state. Its basic goal is to relieve the financial pressures of Medicaid on Florida’s taxpayers by turning over poor and disabled patients to private companies, a move lawmakers believe will cut costs.
Conservatives love the Medicaid reform program, pointing to an in-depth University of Florida study indicating that the experiment has lowered costs while not raising consumer complaints. The Legislature has already approved a slightly modified model of the reform to go statewide. At least one national think tank believes it should be a model for the entire country.
