Proposed Medicaid Cuts Unpopular With Floridians
February 8, 2011
Reductions to Medicaid being proposed by Florida governor Rick Scott are proving to be unpopular with voters in the state.
A January poll commissioned by the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida (SNHAF) found that 71 percent of the 800 registered voters surveyed opposed the cuts and said that it is important that Medicaid be maintained.
The membership of SNHAF is comprised of Florida's largest public, children's and teaching hospitals.
"Florida voters clearly don't support the deep Medicaid reimbursement cuts to hospitals that are being proposed by elected leaders in Tallahassee, and they understand that these cuts will negatively affect the quality of healthcare for all Floridians," said Tony Carvalho, the president of SNHAF.
Hill-Knowlton Strategies conducted the poll, which has a margin of error of +/-3.5%.
An earlier poll conducted by the Florida Hospital Association produced similar results.
Governor Scott has released a draft budget with $2 billion in cuts to Medicaid, including cutting the number of days a Medicaid patient can be hospitalized annually from 45 to 23 days.
The reduction in hospital days was opposed by 72 percent of those polled.
A majority of voters - 59 percent - also opposed cutting Medicaid payments in order to balance the state's budget.
Aside from opposing specific cuts to Medicaid, 56 percent of those polled hold a favorable view of the program that serves 3.3 million Florida residents.
Scott also intends to place hospitals into different categories based on the services they provide, with different payment rates for each category.
Alternatively, House leaders are pushing a broad seven percent cut to the Medicaid budget, which would reduce spending by nearly $400 million. The Senate has yet to propose its cuts.
Persons surveyed said that they were concerned that the cuts would cause hospitals to eliminate services like trauma care, neonatal care and outpatient clinics. Some feared that putting financial pressure on health care providers would cause health insurance premiums to rise.
While most Medicaid providers would feel the cuts, they would fall more heavily on hospitals - $1.4 billion under Gov. Scott's plan.
Over the past seven years Florida hospitals have weathered approximately $1 billion in Medicaid cuts.
"Florida's safety net hospitals provide a wide range of highly specialized healthcare services that benefit everyone in their communities—not just the poor and uninsured—and voters understand this," Carvalho said.