- Associated Press - Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Recent editorials from Florida newspapers:

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June 19

The Ocala StarBanner advocates on demanding answers for prison cuts:

To answer seemingly unanswerable questions, sometimes you have to play connect the dots. In this case, the question is: Why did Gov. Rick Scott - knowing the state is in the grips of an unprecedented opioid-abuse crisis - stand by as the Florida Department of Corrections destroyed successful programs intended to break the cycle of incarceration and drug abuse?

Thanks to dogged reporting by Gatehouse News Service’s John Kennedy and other media, those dots are being connected. And the emerging picture is ugly: Money that could have funded these modest programs is instead disappearing in the maw of a big corporation that just happens to be a major campaign donor.

The ax first fell in May, when corrections officials announced they would be yanking money intended for 33 prison-transition programs around the state - including the Phoenix House Citra Center. These programs, which target inmates on the brink of release, have proved successful in preparing inmates to re-enter society.

As of July 1, these programs will vanish. Inmates making their way through the programs will be returned to prison to await their release dates, when they’ll be discharged with nothing more than a gift card and a bus ticket.

Over the next few years, expect prison-recidivism rates in Florida to skyrocket.

Corrections officials have always been up-front about where they diverted the money intended to fund addiction-treatment programs. The Legislature didn’t appropriate enough to cover a massive $375 million contract with Florida’s prison health contractor - Centurion of Florida. And though the budget included specific funding for the transitional drug-treatment programs, it also had a buried provision that let the Department of Corrections raid any other funding source to pay for prison health services.

In press releases, corrections officials portrayed themselves as helpless, parroting the rationale that Florida is constitutionally mandated to provide health care for prisoners. That’s certainly true.

The state is not, however, constitutionally mandated to provide big profits for private companies. Yet the Centurion contract set to be finalized later this month includes a $55 million increase over the current contract’s costs, as well as a fat 11.5 percent “administrative” fee that could go straight into Centurion’s coffers, with no resulting improvement in health services. DOC representatives have also stressed, repeatedly, that Centurion was the only bidder for the prison health contract - creating the impression that the company had the upper hand in negotiations.

That can’t be the whole story. Florida is the nation’s third-largest prison system; it boggles the imagination that no other company wanted to bid on such a massive chunk of profitable business. What scared other companies off?

One place to look: The state’s campaign-finance database, which reveals that, since 2011, Centurion’s parent company, Centene, contributed more than $1 million to Republican candidates and committees, including the Republican Party as well as Scott’s campaigns. Did that money help secure an unbeatable advantage in the bidding process?

If Scott wants to scrub himself of the appearance that his administration had its thumb on the scales, he’ll call for an independent investigation. If he won’t, an enterprising state attorney should bring the matter before a grand jury. These questions are too big to ignore.

Florida taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill for this contract, including the double-digit profits Centurion is all but guaranteed. They’ll also be the ones facing an increased risk of crime and drug abuse in their communities, as inmates return to life outside prison walls with inadequate preparation and addictions on a hair-trigger. They deserve answers.

Online: http://www.ocala.com/

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June 17

The Palm Beach Post says the growing opioid crisis is straining Florida’s foster care system:

Florida’s foster care system is under siege from an unexpected, unrelenting enemy: the opioid crisis.

As a result, child welfare agencies statewide are grappling with a looming crisis of their own.

“The amount of kids coming into the (foster care) system as a result of parental substance abuse is unconscionable,” Larry Rein, president and CEO of ChildNet of Palm Beach and Broward counties, told The Post Editorial Board.

Rein said substance abuse, historically the top reason for child removals, has steadily grown the past couple of years. And, according to data captured by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF), the spike is owed exclusively to the unyielding opioid epidemic.

Drug abuse doesn’t happen in a vacuum. ChildNet and other agencies that provide foster care services to about 7,500 kids in Florida have sounded the alarm since last year that focusing resources solely on addicts or would-be users is only a partial solution.

There is also the cost that the family endures. That’s true especially for the most vulnerable: children 5 years old and younger. Statewide, there’s been a 38 percent increase in the number of children under the age of 5 who have been removed from homes because of substance abuse in the past four years.

“We’d managed to get it to where we had no kids under the age of 5 in group (home) care,” Rein lamented. “But now, at any given time, we have several.”

The bottom line, says Rein: “We’ve got to find a way to stem this tide of removals.”

Bluntly put, these vulnerable children are part of the ongoing collateral damage in the opioid epidemic that is ravaging our communities. They join the ranks of young paramedics suffering from post-traumatic stress, babies born to opioid-addicted mothers and hospitals straining under the increased financial burden.

We need to get better at addressing this. Children’s lives are at stake. And the overburdened system meant to help them is faltering as it runs out of foster care beds.

Rein compiled the figures ahead of a March meeting with U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, R-Boca Raton, to discuss the opioid epidemic’s impact on the foster care system.

Red flags should be flying because these increases are being seen most with younger children who are dependent on others to provide basic necessities, like preparing meals or bathing or having clean clothes to wear.

Yes, Florida lawmakers have responded to advocates’ requests for better funding in recent years, providing for about 5,300 foster families to be licensed.

But, as Rein notes, it’s going to take time for some of that new funding to work its way into the system. Meanwhile, “we’re running out of individual foster homes to place children,” he said. It costs roughly $17,000 annually to place a child in a foster home, but $57,000 to place that same child in a group home for a year because of added costs, like round-the-clock professional staffing.

An easy fix presents itself in the form of more foster care recruiters. So if there was ever a time to become a foster parent, this is it.

But the goal must include repairing the family so that the child can go back to a stable home, Rein says. To that end, a $350,000 local appropriation secured by state Sens. Kevin Rader, D-Boca Raton, and Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, this legislative session will help. But it is common for addicts to try to kick their habits multiple times. And many never succeed.

This we do know. Opioid addiction claims hundreds of overdose victims daily. A 5-year-old whose parents care less about their child than finding the next fix shouldn’t be among them.

Online: https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/

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June 17

The Gainesville Sun say voters should cast their ballots like their health care depends on it:

In the upcoming federal and state elections, voters should cast their ballots like their health care depends on it.

For those with preexisting conditions, that certainly is the case. The Trump administration is now arguing in court that the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that insurers cover preexisting conditions is invalid, along with other parts of the law.

It is the latest move by the administration to sabotage the ACA, following the repeal of the individual mandate in last year’s tax-cut legislation. The repeal and other changes approved by the administration are driving up insurance costs, threatening the health coverage of the 1.7 million Floridians and others who have obtained coverage through the federal marketplaces.

The changes will increase their premiums by about $1,000 next year, according to a report from the Center for American Progress. If the administration-backed legal action against the ACA succeeds, many more Floridians will be affected: about 7.8 million Floridians have preexisting conditions, including 280,000 residents of U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho’s congressional district.

Yoho, R-Gainesville, is among Republicans on the ballot this year who have supported the assault on the ACA without care of the consequences of those covered under it. While the act required that people with preexisting conditions such as asthma, cancer and diabetes can’t be turned away by insurers, the Trump administration is actively working to end that requirement and ensure the only policies they’ll be able to buy are junk insurance that covers little.

While the ACA has reduced the ranks of the uninsured, many people still need health coverage. In Florida, the opposition to expanding Medicaid by Gov. Rick Scott and Republicans in the Legislature such as Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, means about 800,000 Floridians lack coverage who would otherwise have it under the ACA.

Nationwide, 33 states and the District of Columbia have chosen to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income residents who lack insurance - with Virginia being the latest to join the list. Florida Democrats picked Gainesville to launch their statewide campaign for Medicaid expansion with an event Tuesday that included one of Perry’s possible opponents in his state Senate race, Democratic candidate Dr. Kayser Enneking.

Enneking, a physician, rightly noted that leaving large numbers of people uninsured ends up costing everyone. The uninsured often wait until a health condition turns into a crisis and then use hospital emergency rooms for treatment, driving up health expenses for the rest of the public.

With Scott running for the U.S. Senate, Perry and Yoho running for reelection, and two Republicans who oppose Medicaid expansion running for governor, voters should keep in mind their stands against affordable health care. We need lawmakers that push back on the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, not facilitate them further.

Online: http://www.gainesville.com/

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