The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? – Donald Trump
In 1987, after briefly serving in the United States Navy and becoming a law firm partner, Rick Scott co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Columbia later merged with another corporation to form Columbia/HCA, eventually the largest private for-profit health care company in the United States. Scott was forced to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs.
Columbia/HCA gave kickbacks to doctors so they would refer patients. Columbia/HCA made patients look sicker than they were, so Medicare would pay more. Columbia/HCA kept two sets of books. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the company “by far the largest recovery ever reached by the government in a health care fraud investigation” – $1.7 billion. Billion, with a B.
Scott never took responsibility. He blamed the investigation on the Clintons who supposedly sought revenge after Scott opposed health care reform. Scott claimed Columbia/HCA was no worse than other companies. And, of course, Scott claimed not to have known anything. He was a genius who deserved his megabucks severance, but he had no idea about how his company was screwing the sick and plundering the American taxpayers..
Scott was never charged with any crime. He is said to have received a Golden Parachute approximating three hundred million dollars. ($300,000,000.00.) When questioned in a related civil suit, Slick Rick pleaded the Fifth seventy-five (75) times. Seventy-five times, he could not answer truthfully lest he incriminate himself. Works out to four million per, if you are using this article for Newspapers In The Schools.
Looking for fresh territory, the disgraced health care leader absconds to the closest banana republic – Florida – and buys the governor’s mansion. Sells the government planes because he already has his own private jet. No reason to make it easy for other leaders to get around.
After eight years on his watch, the tides turned red, the seas are rising, anacondas rule the Keys, gators kill babies at amusement parks, the homeless beat to death flamingoes for sport and air conditioning at old folks’ homes remains a luxury. Slick Rick is richer than ever- apparently his blind trust was see-through – and now he’s bought himself a United States Senate seat. (Reptile-FL)
But wait. It gets better.
From Michael Hiltzik LA Times.
Trump putting Rick Scott in charge of his healthcare push is a sick joke
This is the guy Trump says will make the Republican Party “the party of healthcare.” In naming Scott, along with Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) as his flying wedge on the topic, Trump promised, “They are going to come up with something really spectacular.”
Republicans call Obamacare a ‘failure.’ These 7 charts show they couldn’t be more wrong
During Scott’s eight years as Florida’s governor, ending this year, Florida remained one of the sickest states in the union. Its uninsured rate among adults age 18-64 rose to 20.1% in 2017. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that was the third-worst rate in the U.S.
The Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare think tank, ranked Florida third worst in overall health metrics (48th out of the 50 states and District of Columbia). The state ranked 49th in measures of access and affordability of healthcare, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and cost, and disparity in care between high- and low-income residents.
One major reason for this record is Scott’s refusal to expand Medicaid. He even rejected a 2015 proposal that would have covered 800,000 Floridians, albeit with the imposition of work requirements and co-pays.
Notwithstanding Scott’s “expertise,” he mumbled and fumbled under questioning Sunday by Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He seemed to be under the impression Trump would propose a healthcare plan, though Trump dumped the matter in his lap. Amazingly, he repeated, “I ran a large hospital company,” even though the company was guilty of fraud.
Asked if a Republican alternative would “guarantee access to maternity care or care for newborn children? Mental health? Some of the things that are guaranteed in Obamacare,” he dodged the question with a bland, “Well, of course.”
Would it, though? One of the last GOP proposals for an ACA replacement was offered in 2017 by Cassidy, now Scott’s partner in cooking up an alternative. That proposal would have cost untold millions of Americans their health coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would have weakened protections for people with preexisting conditions by giving states the authority to allow insurers to charge those customers higher premiums.
As for Barrasso, a colorless member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s team, he voted at least twice against expanding health coverage for children, and backed former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s budget proposal that would have undermined Medicare.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Republican healthcare team.
Do you expect them to come up with “something really spectacular” as Trump promised?
To ask the question is to answer it.
