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Summary
Rick Scott was elected Republican governor of Florida in a close race in 2010 after spending over $75 million of his own money on the campaign, compared to the Democrats’ $28 million.
Scott began his career as a Navy radar technician before becoming a businessman after earning business and law degrees.
In 1987 Scott co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation, which merged with Hospital Corporation of America to form Columbia/HCA, eventually becoming the largest private for-profit health care company in the U.S.
The board of directors forced Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO in 1997 following investigations by the FBI, IRS, and the Department of Health and Human Services over the company's business and Medicare billing practices. Scott was paid $9.9 million in settlement and left with 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.
This became the largest fraud settlement in U.S. history; Columbia/HCA admitted to felonies for overcharging the government, striking illegal deals with home care companies, fraudulently billing Medicare and other health care programs, giving doctors kickbacks for referrals to company hospitals, and filing false cost reports.
Columbia/HCA agreed to pay the federal government over $631 million, $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, and $250 million to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. Civil suits cost HCA $2 billion to settle, according to the Department of Justice.
After leaving HCA, Scott became a venture capitalist. In the 1990s he was a co-owner of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush. In 1997 he became a majority owner of America’s Health Network, the first 24-hour health care cable channel, which was ultimately acquired by Fox Network in 2001.
Scott co-founded Solantic in 2001 to provide urgent care, aimed at people without health insurance, without primary care doctors, or access to see their primary physician. Solantic was the target of an employment discrimination suit claiming it had a policy to not hire elderly or obese applicants, preferring 'mainstream' candidates. It was settled for an undisclosed sum on 2007.
Scott founded Conservatives for Patients’ Rights in 2009 to oppose Obama’s health care plans.
In 2011 he proposed a bill in Florida to privatize Medicare and Medicaid, which was defeated, and he continues to oppose the federal health care reform law, rejecting millions of dollars in grants at a time when fewer Floridians have health insurance.
In June 2011 Scott signed a bill requiring applicants seeking welfare under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to submit to drug screenings. Promising that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, the Florida law resulted in no direct savings, caught few drug users, and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data. Scott said, “It's the right thing for taxpayers. It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs.”
In March 2011, Governor Rick Scott rolled back the right to vote for hundreds of thousands Florida citizens who have criminal records. Under the new rules, even people with nonviolent convictions must wait five years after they complete all terms of their sentences before they are allowed to apply for restoration of civil rights; the clock resets if an individual is arrested, including for a misdemeanor, during the five-year waiting period. After the waiting period, application and hearing, a person could be denied restoration with no reason or explanation, and then must wait another two years before starting the process again.
In May 2011, Governor Scott signed an omnibus election law that makes it more difficult to register and to vote in Florida. The new law imposes severe restrictions and penalties on nonpartisan groups that register voters and slashes the number of days allowed for early voting, including eliminating the option of voting on the Sunday before Election Day.
Nearly 54 percent of Florida’s African-American voters used early voting sites in 2008. On the Sunday before the election, African-Americans accounted for nearly a third of the statewide turnout.
League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote have shut down their voter registration efforts in the state. There has already been a significant drop-off in new voter registration. In the months since the new law took effect, 81,471 fewer Floridians have registered to vote than in the same period in 2008.
Quotes
Since proposing a bill in 2011 that aimed to privatize Medicare and Medicaid, Gov. Rick Scott continues to oppose the federal health care reform law, rejecting millions of dollars in grants. Meanwhile, the number of Floridians enrolled in health insurance continues to decrease. But maybe Scott has the right idea. After all, for ten years he was CEO of Columbia/HCA: a giant chain of hospitals guilty of the largest health care scandal in the U.S., ultimately owing $1.7 billion for Medicaid and Medicare fraud and pleading guilty to 14 felonies.
(Sources: New York Times; New York Times; ThinkProgress; Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, & Abate; Mother Jones; The State Column)
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Despite the Florida Senate rejecting controversial SB 2038, which aimed to privatize more than 20 Florida prisons, Gov. Rick Scott said “he will explore opportunities to privatize state prisons on his own.” Privatization would mean a smaller work force, which not only leads to thousands of job losses for Floridians, but also raises questions about safety, security and efficiency.
(Sources: TampaBay.com; Orlando Sentinel; ACLU Florida; South Florida Business Journal)
“Providing a modern, a health care safety net for our low-income and disabled citizens is an important state function to save money and provide better care by adopting market principles and giving patients more choices. Unfortunately, the federal government requires Florida to get approval before expanding the use of these innovative, cost-saving programs. The federal government seems to forget that federal revenues were recently the hard earned dollars of Floridians. But, with or without the cooperation of the federal government, we will find a way to meet these health care needs without jeopardizing other priorities.”
(Scott partly owns a chain of "Doc-in-a-Box" called Solantic and Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies, a chain of drugstores. March 8, 2011, State of the State Address – Source)
“Florida has to offer business people the biggest opportunity for financial success. Not a guarantee, just a fair chance. Three forces reduce that chance for success. Taxation, regulation and litigation, those three form the axis of unemployment.”
(Jan. 3, 2011 – Source)
Gov. Scott explained that he vetoed the $2 million in research funding [for citrus disease] because he did not understand that the money came from the growers themselves through a box tax on citrus. “It was my first budget,” he said apologetically. “I will get up to speed on that issue. As much as I would like to say I understand the citrus community, I don’t.”
(June 15, 2011 – Source)
“It's the right thing for taxpayers. It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs.”
(May 31, 2011, after signing into law a bill that will require adults applying for welfare benefits to undergo drug screening. Applicants who test positive for drug use will not qualify for assistance. Source)
[T]he governor intentionally front-loaded his first-year agenda with controversial policy objectives that could alienate voters, giving him three more years to make a recovery. “The strategic decision was made to try to bite off as much as we can in the first session,” says Fabrizio. “Then, in the subsequent sessions, it allows you to not take as much heat and as many arrows from interest groups. And that allows you to focus on the other things that help you.”
This strategy might work for Scott, since he isn’t up for re-election until 2014, but it could have devastating effects for Republicans in the 2012 presidential race: The same PPP poll from June found that 40 percent of Florida voters considered themselves less likely to vote for a Republican for president next year thanks specifically to Scott....
Florida will assume the national spotlight by hosting Republican National Convention in Tampa in August 2012. “He’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, says of the governor. “You get to see with Rick Scott the type of government you’re going to get with these presidential candidates. Is this the kind of president you want? Rick Scott?”
(Aug. 6, 2011, Aaron Deslatte, “Could Rick Scott Hand Florida to Obama?”, The New Republic – Source)
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the state’s Legislature won its Muzzle for adopting a National Rifle Association-backed law that largely prohibits physicians from asking patients about firearms in their homes or discussing gun safety. In response to a challenge by physicians’ groups and gun-control advocates, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction last fall blocking enforcement of the law, ruling that it infringed on free speech in the context of a doctor-patient relationship.
“This isn’t about gun ownership, it’s about speech about guns,” Wheeler said. “They’re stepping beyond their role when they try to limit what can be said about guns or gun safety.”
(April 11, 2012, Associated Press, “Free-expression group bestows Muzzles on Fla. government, US State Department, other violators,” Washington Post – Source)
Ushered in amid promises that it would save taxpayers money and deter drug users, a Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data. ...
From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them. ...
Because the Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test, Mr. Newton said.
As a result, the testing cost the government an extra $45,780, he said.
And the testing did not have the effect some predicted. An internal document about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, caseloads stated that the drug testing policy, at least from July through September, did not lead to fewer cases.
“We saw no dampening effect on the caseload,” the document said. ...
From July through October in Florida — the four months when testing took place before Judge Scriven’s order — 2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state obtained by the group. The most common reason was marijuana use. An additional 40 people canceled the tests without taking them.
(April 17, 2012, Lizette Alvarez, “No Savings Are Found From Welfare Drug Tests,” New York Times – Source)
In March 2011, Governor Rick Scott rolled back the right to vote for hundreds of thousands — perhaps as many as a million — Florida citizens who have criminal records. Florida has long had one of the harshest felony voting bans in the country, but Governor Scott not only reversed some moderate reforms put in place by former Governor Charlie Crist, he made the state’s policy even more restrictive than it was under the previous governor, Jeb Bush.
Under the new rules, even people with nonviolent convictions must wait five years after they complete all terms of their sentences before they are allowed to apply for restoration of civil rights; the clock resets if an individual is arrested, including for a misdemeanor, during the five-year waiting period. In some cases, people must wait seven years before being able to apply, and then they must appear in person for a hearing before the clemency board in Tallahassee. Remember: all of this has to happen just to have the opportunity to ask for one’s right to vote back. After the waiting period, the application and the hearing, you could be denied restoration with no reason or explanation. And if that happens, you have to wait another two years before starting the process all over again.
Prior to Governor Scott’s changes, nearly a quarter of those disenfranchised in Florida were African-American. The new rules will most likely increase this number. For example, Florida law enforcement statistics show that nearly 35 percent of all arrests and 41 percent of drug arrests in Florida in 2010 were of African-Americans (African-Americans make up 16 percent of the state’s population). Consequently, the new “arrest-free” waiting period is likely to increase the impact on minorities.
In May 2011, Governor Scott signed an omnibus election law that makes it more difficult to register and to vote in Florida. The new law imposes severe restrictions and penalties on nonpartisan groups that register voters and slashes the number of days allowed for early voting, including eliminating the option of voting on the Sunday before Election Day.
These may seem like little technical tweaks, but in fact their impact could be dramatic. According to the League of Women Voters, African-American and Hispanic voters register to vote through community registration drives at twice the rate of white voters. Nearly 54 percent of Florida’s African-American voters used early voting sites in 2008. On the Sunday before the election, African-Americans accounted for nearly a third of the statewide turnout.
The new restrictions on voter registration groups include requiring every individual who registers voters on behalf of an organization to register his name and address with the state, and requires groups to turn in completed registration forms within 48 hours, or risk fines and penalties. As a result, the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote have shut down their voter registration efforts in the state. There has already been a significant drop-off in new voter registration. Last week, The Times reported that in the months since the new law took effect, 81,471 fewer Floridians have registered to vote than in the same period in 2008.
(April 5, 2012, Erica Wood, associate professor of law at New York Law School, “Florida. How Soon We Forget.” New York Times – Source)