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Prison Health Care Privatization Contract Signed
January 4, 2013
The state’s efforts to privatize prison health care services across roughly the southern third of Florida is moving ahead, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman confirmed Thursday.
Agency spokeswoman Ann Howard said DOC and Wexford Health Services, Inc., signed a $48 million contract on Dec. 18 and hope for a 90-day transition period, allowing the company to finish taking over operations some time in March.
The state expects to save about $12 million a year with the privatization. Employees are being notified of the change and are guaranteed an interview with Wexford, Howard said.
An initiative to turn over health-care services in other parts of the state to Corizon, Inc., is currently tangled up in court after a Leon County judge struck down a decision by the Legislative Budget Commission to authorize that transfer. The judge ruled that the 14-member commission overstepped its authority by allowing the privatization to go forward in areas where the full Legislature had not authorized it.
The state has appealed that decision.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
3 Responses to “Prison Health Care Privatization Contract Signed”
This, IMO, is all about exploiting tax payer dollars. Corporatist Politicians bought by Wall Street type Lobbyist to use our tax dollars to make themselves wealthy.
Instead of providing health care at cost and paying for it, now we are feeding tax dollars to a “For-Profit” corporation. These dollars that we will be using were also in part dollars that we use to use to people with getting mental health. So now that we don’t offer those services, we need more Law Enforcement to fill up the jails and more “Private owned For-Profit” Jail will of course need to be built.
The GOP hate, fear and smear rhetoric toward a make believe Liberal goal of socialism has lead the way and opened the doors to Corporatist Fascism. The baby-boomer version of Conservatism is not about Conservatism what so ever.
And what will the citizens of Florida start doing when inmates start turning up dead left and right because of poor health care from the “private” health care system, just as they have in other states that privatized health care for their inmates.
Just remember those “cost savings” are mostly from staffing and pay cuts, which lead to fewer and less qualified staff to handle the inmate population.
I wonder if Rick Scott will go to President Obama and ask him for help because this layoff will hurt “the livelihood of Florida families”, just as he did for the Longshoremen?