Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Florida in Revolt: "Gov. Scott (R), go pound sand!"

Counties in Florida are spitting in the eye of the state's executive after his Department of Health's henchman, Deputy Secretary, C. Meade Grigg let it be known that no ACA Navigators would be allowed in any of the state's Health Department facilities to "steal our citizen's identities" while ostensibly informing them of how they could benefit from Obamacare and how to go about doing so.

Only the guv and his lackies forgot one essential fact. The State doesn't own the public health facilities in Florida. The counties do. And in their several entities, major counties in Florida are defying their health care systems fraudster-governor. Pinellas, Broward, and Miami-Dade (to name but three) WILL ENCOURAGE ACA NAVIGATORS on their premises.

The governor and his like-minded mindless devotees met in Miami a month ago to express their faux concern that 20 hours of training was insufficient to make the Navigators effective 'splainers much less be enough time to conduct background checks on the suspicious volunteers who (in Republican reality) must be a gang of professional identity thieves breathlessly awaiting their chance to swoop in and make a killing on get-rich-quick schemes once they possess all the poor folks' identities. That's right it's the POOR who will make the "IDENTITY THIEVES" rich. Isn't that rich! Of course, the navigators must have learned their reverse Robin Hood trickery from the Republican politicos who secretly are just afraid of the increased competition.

You gotta watch out for those unintended consequences, Governor Scott. Unintended consequences of having had your chance but declining to take it. DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz summed it up perfectly:

“They [State Republican officials] had the ability to control all of those issues themselves if they had chosen to set up a state exchange,” she said.
“Because of their political obstinance (sic), they forfeited their right to express those concerns.” Orlando Sentinel

Or put another way, "Sit down and shut up, Scotty. Or do you wanna beam up somewhere?" Knowing that Florida has one of the highest uninsured rates in the land (3.5 million with no insurance), must make our Republican governor very proud.
If any of my readers want an Action Item, why not kick a little sand in his eye while he's down? Volunteer to become an ACA Navigator in your community. Here's where you start.

Things Rick Scott Doesn't Want Floridians to Know

Average premium for Floridians insured under ACA: $257 for the Bronze Package.

Talk about CHOICE: Brevard County residents get to choose among 6 insurers; Broward -- at least 8; Miami-Dade -- 9, offering 141 different plans across all levels, including catastrophic coverage.

South Florida ACA premiums will be among the lowest in the state. (All those damn libruls.)

Individuals who earn up to $46,000 or a four-person family with an income up to $94,000 will qualify for subsidies to help them lower monthly cost. For example, a family of four with an income of $50,000 would pay about $104 a month when subsidies are included. Daytona Beach News-Journal
Oh! the agony of the irony. Get this: State legislators will be paying more for their insurance.

Florida legislators who had been paying significantly less for health insurance than rank-and-file state workers are going to start pay more.

House legislators [will] pay the same rate as career service workers: $50 a month in premiums for individual coverage and $180 a month for family coverage. . .

Florida is spending more than $2 billion during this fiscal year — which ends next June — to cover roughly 170,000 state workers, university employees and retirees. Most of the money comes from taxpayers, not premiums paid by employees. Miami Herald
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/26/1241627/-Florida-in-Revolt-Gov-Scott-R-go-pound-sand