December 21, 2014
By Nicholas Nehamas,
Florida’s decision to privatize government-subsidized healthcare for more than 3 million Medicaid recipients will lower costs and improve care, state leaders say.
But the new managed care system is also exposing some Floridians in Medicaid, the state/federal insurance program for children, the poor and disabled, to the uncertainties of the private market for the first time.
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People with rare and serious conditions like Miller could be at risk of being denied the treatment they need in the private market, said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University and an expert on Florida’s Medicaid system.
“This is exactly what I was worried about when Florida began moving to managed care,” Alker said. “There must be exceptions for people with rare conditions to access the care they need.”
She called Miller’s initial inability to seek treatment at UM a potential sign of “network inadequacy.”