Welcome to

The Governor has named his team for the newly created Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding, but as Matt Galka tells us, critics are quick to point out the lack of hospital experience among them.

Rick Scott is in Washington, D.C. for the second time in two weeks.  He’s meeting with members of Congress as he continues to rail on the feds for their role in Florida’s budget meltdown.  Scott won’t expand Medicaid and there’s a 2 billion dollar hole in the state budget because there will be no more federal money for hospitals serving low income patients.  The Governor had strong words on Fox News Monday night.

“You ruined my budget. I went through my session, I don’t have a budget, I have to have a budget by the end of June through the House and Senate. We have a fight between the House and Senate on what to do, you have sat there and not done anything so your decision to not do anything for poor families is a “no,” Gov. Rick Scott told Greta Van Susteren on her show “On the Record.”

The D.C. trip comes in the wake of Scott naming 9 members to his Commission on Healthcare and Hospital funding.  Their mission: analyze hospital spending. But none of the nine names include any hospital executives. You’ll also find only one actual doctor.

Democrats were quick to slam the Governor’s choices for the commission.

“I think they have a banker, a builder, and a beef consultant. These aren’t the people who should be fixing Florida’s healthcare system,” said Democratic Party Spokesman Joshua Karp.

Agency for Healthcare Administration Secretary Liz Dudek and Florida’s Surgeon General John Armstrong will be co-executive directors of the commission. We reached out to both to see what they would like to accomplish with the commission – but we were told both were travelling on Tuesday.

The commission meets for the first time in Tallahassee on May 20^th. The Governor would like them to provide recommendations for lawmakers as they take part in their special session from June 1^st through June 20^th.