The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state will not enforce a federal mandate for COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare settings, which the Supreme Court upheld Jan. 13.
“The state of Florida is not going to serve as the Biden administration’s biomedical police,” a spokesperson for Mr. DeSantis wrote in an email Jan. 13 to the USA TODAY Network-Florida.
Big deal. CMS will strip Medicare/Medicaid funding from hospitals not in compliance.
Pretty much every single doctor, hospital and health care facility of any kind accepts Medicare and Medicaid. They will be forced to follow the no-brainer mandate of every employee getting vaccinated or else they will have to shut down.
This mandate is almost 2 years too late. Early Covid-19 was spread from facility to facility by workers who had jobs in more than one facility. (In Washington State.) That was months before the vaccine was available.
It’s about time there was a mandate. Using Medicare and Medicaid funding to enforce it is brilliant since it works outside of political pressure.
Wendy
Big deal. CMS will strip Medicare/Medicaid funding from hospitals not in compliance.
Cutting off Medicare and Medicaid payments would only hurt the people. The providers will simply bill them, at the highest possible rate, if Medicare doesn’t pay.
Florida is one of the states less dependent on Federal handouts, but Federal money still accounts for 16.6% of state revenue.
Return on Statehood: How Much Value Every State Gets From the Federal Government
Early Covid-19 was spread from facility to facility by workers who had jobs in more than one facility. (In Washington State.)
I think that it happened here, too (Finger Lakes region): two facilities under the same ownership, and a third in the same town, had simultaneous outbreaks.
Cutting off Medicare and Medicaid payments would only hurt the people. The providers will simply bill them, at the highest possible rate, if Medicare doesn’t pay.
The people will refuse to pay because they pay for Medicare. If the hospital doesn’t take the payments from the govt, management will feel the paid very quickly. When there isn’t enough cash to pay the workers, they will leave. That effectively shuts down all those facilities.
Florida is one of the states less dependent on Federal handouts, but Federal money still accounts for 16.6% of state revenue.
Florida is more dependent now on federal payments than previously. The virtual end of tourism to Florida has dried up a massive cash flow source that is not readily replaced. Lots of other businesses are dependent on this now-missing revenue. That kills a state cash source that could have been used before Covid. It (the cash) does not exist now in Florida because the revenue simply is not being generated. Covid shut down the vast entertainment/travel industry upon which the state is dependent.
The people will refuse to pay because they pay for Medicare. If the hospital doesn’t take the payments from the govt, management will feel the paid very quickly. When there isn’t enough cash to pay the workers, they will leave. That effectively shuts down all those facilities.
Would not work that way. The hospitals will call debt collectors down on the people to squeeze the money out of them. If the people protest that they paid for Medicare coverage, they will be told the “big Communistial gummit in DC took their Medicare away”.
Nope, can’t touch Medicare and Medicaid payments. Go where the problem is. Take away the money that passes through the Governor’s hands.
Florida is one of the states less dependent on Federal handouts, but Federal money still accounts for 16.6% of state revenue.
Retirees pay a lot of capital gains taxes very often, but this measure is not the real measure.
Florida gets more social spending than anywhere else per capita and possibly as a state.
Meaning of all the welfare budgets combined state, local and federal the seniors get 85% of that spending and the rest 15% goes to people in need.
Florida is hog wild and drunk on SS and Medicare.
DeSantis has no standing in this. The Supremes just decided this. A judge or two who are political hacks will back DeSantis if he shops them, but the higher courts will overrule any such victories.
It is interesting how a state’s governor can be against overreach for the federal government and then constantly commit overreach himself.
Florida’s tourism industry exceeded expectations in the third quarter of 2021, drawing 32.6 million visitors, which was 2 million more than forecast earlier this year and 0.3 percent above the overall number of visitors in the third quarter of 2019 — before the pandemic began.