Florida Bans Obamacare Navigators From Helping Uninsured At County Health Departments [View all]

[babylonsister]

Florida Bans Obamacare Navigators From Helping Uninsured At County Health Departments

Posted: 09/12/2013 11:05 am EDT | Updated: 09/12/2013 8:17 pm EDT

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"This is another blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare counselors have been doing for years," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Fabien Levy.

Reports the Times/Herald Bureau:

The order from Deputy Health Secretary C. Meade Grigg went out late Monday to the 60 local health department directors across the state.

Grigg declined to comment on the directive. But health department spokeswoman Ashley Carr said there was a need for "clarity" and "a consistent message" across the agency.

"Navigators are not acting on behalf of the {Florida} Department of Health and this program has raised privacy concerns due to the consumer information that will be gathered for use in a federal database," Carr wrote in a statement.

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The "cruel and irresponsible" order will “significantly compromise a multitude of needy Floridians from getting critical health care," retired Pasco County Health Director Marc Yacht told the Times/Herald.

Florida's resistance to the Affordable Care Act is steadfast: It acted as lead plaintiff in an unsuccessful suit to stop the law, and in lieu of accepting an estimated $5 billion in federal grant money each year to expand Medicaid to more than a million Floridians, the state's conservative House instead insisted on using state funds to expand a private program to just 130,000 residents. Florida declined to set up its own state exchange for individuals and small businesses, and then relaxed Tallahassee's ability to regulate rates in the state -- an important consumer protection -- as it ceded control of its exchange to the federal government.

Florida has also refused to advertise the availability of the new program on October 1 even as it bars navigators from helping people sign up at county health centers.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/florida-bans-obamacare-navigators_n_3913979.html