Rick Scott on privatizing Medicare: ‘Let us make a profit. So what?’ Plus: irradiate the elderly…cheaply

From the Joint Bureau of The Reid Report and Saint Petersblog: If you’re running for governor in a state full of old people, it’s probably helpful if you’re not on record as wanting to take away their social safety net. It’s also probably not helpful if you want to hand their medical care over to companies like the one you used to run … the one that committed record-shattering Medicare fraud. Enter Rick Scott …

The Orlando Sentinel offers this helpful flashback:

Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Scott could have to do some explaining about his past this fall, and not just what he knew about the Medicare and Medicaid fraud at his former company, Columbia/HCA.

See, he once wanted to privatize all of it: the government-funded health-care programs that pay for the check-ups, hospital stays and prescriptions for 45 million seniors and millions more poor people.

Before he was forced out in 1997 as CEO of the company amid the largest Medicare fraud investigation in U.S. history, Scott was a national player in the industry resistance to President Clinton‘s attempt to impose a national health care program. When Scott was still trying to expand his hospital chain, he told USA Today the state and federally run health insurance programs would be better off in the hands of profit-seeking companies. “Let us make a profit. So what?” he said in 1994.

He also had his eyes on Veterans Administration hospitals.

“If you look at how the government runs VA hospitals and Medicare and Medicaid, you can see that the whole system is inefficient,” Scott told theSouth Florida Business Journal the same year. “The things we are doing wrong in health care can be corrected if private business could run national health care administration.”

As for what Scott would like to do to Medicaid, the state-administered federal program he would have administrative authority over if he … shudder … became Florida’s governor:

The issue is relevant now because Scott – when he does occasionally mention a Florida issue on the stump – has said he wants to cut $1.4 billion from the $18-billion Medicaid program without providing any specifics on how, other than continuing a regional experiment launched by former Gov. Jeb Bush to turn over Medicaid patients to HMOs and other health-care networks.

Networks like … Columbia/HCA.

Fear the future.

The Alex Sink campaign wasted no time jumping on the revelation, firing off an email to reporters this afternoon that read in part:

The Orlando Sentinel reports that disgraced executive Rick Scott wanted to privatize Medicare, Medicaid, and even Veterans health care, at the same time his company was defrauding our seniors in the largest Medicare fraud scheme in our nation’s history [Orlando Sentinel, 9/3/10].  Rick Scott’s company also took unnecessary risks with seniors’ health for profit, including using cheaper medical supplies that put seniors in danger.

“Rick Scott supported ending Medicare as our seniors know it, creating an unknown threat to seniors health,” said Kyra Jennings, Alex Sink for Governor spokesperson.  “He has a history of putting seniors at risk to make a profit.  And since we know Scott’s former company engaged in a systemic corporate scheme to defraud Medicare and his current company is now being investigated on new charges of submitting false Medicare claims, seniors have a real reason to worry what he’d do to them as governor.”

Rick Scott’s business career and public statements suggest he is a dangerous threat to seniors’ health:  He supported ending Medicare as we know it and privatizing it; his company, Columbia/HCA engaged in a systemic corporate scheme to defraud Medicare and was fined $1.7 billion; and now his newest company, Solantic, is being investigated on new charges of submitting false Medicare claims.  In addition, in 1997 it was reported that Scott’s company was instituting cost-cutting measures that caused senior patients “unnecessary pain and potential danger.”

“When Rick Scott rolled the dice on the health and well-being of Florida’s seniors, he proved yet again that he will do anything just to help himself.  Seniors need to know that Alex Sink has a proven record of standing up for Florida’s seniors, and that she will always put the needs of Floridians first,” Jennings continued.

Maybe that’s what Jennifer Carroll meant when she said Scott was only running for governor for personal gain…
Team Sink was also kind enough to clip some past stories reminding us that when Rick Scott was running Columbia/HCA, his nastier business practices included requiring his hospitals to use cheaper radiology products when treating senior citizens. Seriously:

Columbia/HCA Required Radiologists To Use Cheaper Radiology Dyes Which Had The Potential To Cause Serious Complications In Seniors With No Specific History Of Health Problems. According to the St. Petersburg Times, in July 1997, “Some radiologists say that when it comes to certain X-ray procedures, Columbia’s cost-cutting causes patients unnecessary pain and potential danger. At issue is the type of contrast dye used during such procedures as arteriograms and CT scans… Columbia severely limits the use of more expensive dyes, even though they have fewer side effects…A person with a history of kidney problems, for instance, can suffer kidney shutdown when trying to excrete less expensive dyes, which are highly concentrated. A person with cardiac problems can suffer heart failure. Even an elderly person with no specific history of health problems can experience serious complications, like loss of blood pressure and consciousness.” [St. Petersburg Times, 7/20/97]

Cheaper Radiology Dye Caused An Otherwise Healthy Retiree’s Blood Pressure To Drop Precipitously And Fall Into Semi-consciousness, Sending Him To The Emergency Room For Several Hours. According to the St. Petersburg Times, in July 1997, Dr. David Carroll, a Pasco County radiologist, “said his worst experience involved using the less-expensive dye on an otherwise healthy retiree. The patient’s skin turned red and his blood pressure dropped precipitously, sending him into semi-consciousness. He recovered after spending several hours in the emergency room.” [St. Petersburg Times, 7/20/97]

Modern Healthcare Columnist: “Throughout His Career, Scott Has Demonstrated Contempt For Any Force, Public Or Private, That Opposes His Vision Of The Way Things Should Be And His Profits.”In August 2010, Neil Mclaughlin, a columnist for the well-regarded trade magazine Modern Healthcare, wrote, “Some things never change…Throughout his career, Scott has demonstrated contempt for any force, public or private, that opposes his vision of the way things should be and his profits…During the gubernatorial campaign, Scott repeatedly told voters that, if elected, he would run state government like a business. Given Scott’s history, that is exactly what Floridians should fear.” [Modern Healthcare, 8/30/10]

Florida has a problem on its hands. There’s almost nothing to recommend this person as governor. He is, by all accounts, a crook, a liar, and a man so ruthless in his pursuit of profit for himself, he has no concern about the elderly, about propriety, or even about the law. How this person could even be  in contention to be the governor of any state is beyond me. But sadly, there are people, lots of them, who frankly hate Barack Obama so much, and who have been driven to such insane levels of paranoia about him, they’d literally put the Devil in office just to spite him. And they are convinced that in fact Social Security and Medicare, the programs upon which this country’s social floor were built — which virtually ended poverty among our nation’s elderly, giving them a chance at a dignified retirement — should be handed over to the very Wall Street villains they claim to loathe. It’s unbelievable. Truly.

Marie Antoinette had it all wrong. She and her King shouldn’t have fought the stormers of the Bastille. She should have co-opted them.

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