Florida Governor Rick Scott Pays $360 a Year for State Health Insurance

I would gather to say this news probably even makes people in Florida less happy with their current governor.  As you can read below on what he spent to win the election, does he feel it’s justified to get a break on his health insurance too?  The taxpayers are paying for his insurance as they do for many top ranking VIPs in the state as they come as part of the perks of the job.  State legislators pay $8.34 a month for their health insurance.  Some retired government employees pay as much as $1200 a month with no subsidies and it amounts to over $15k a year. 

What does not seem to be fair is the premium amounts that state workers pay by comparison, an administrative assistant as quoted here pays $2.160 for their health insurance.  As a refresher Rick Scott signed the state budget that cut Medicaid reimbursements by 12%. 

Florida Governor Rick Scott Signs State Budget That Cuts Medicaid Reimbursements in the Sate by 12% While Florida HMO Profits Were Up 16%

In 1997 Scott was forced to resign as the CEO of Columbia/HCA, then the country’s largest hospital chain, while it was being investigated for massive Medicare and Medicaid fraud.  It doesn’t appear that with all his wealth that perhaps setting an example of bowing out of a taxpayer health insurance plan has much consideration here.  With the cost of healthcare for all in the US it seems lawmakers everywhere might be getting a second look by consumers as it certainly doesn’t seem fair with the laws that are being passed and budget cuts occurring.  BD 

Last year, political neophyte Rick Scott spent $73 million of his own money to bring the tea party’s anti-government, pro-privatization agenda to the Florida governor’s office. Today, the former executive pays just $30 a month for health care—and lets taxpayers cover the rest.

The governor, a proud bearer of the Republican Party’s deregulation standard, has spent his first half-year in office decrying government waste: He’s laid off thousands of Sunshine State employees, slashed their benefits, turned down (most of) the federal government’s health care dollars, and put extra financial pressure on Florida retirees and Medicaid recipients. But Scott and his dependents pay one-fifth what a janitor in the state Capitol pays for health insurance…and less than 3 percent of what a retired state trooper pays for life-saving coverage.

Rick Scott Pays $360 a Year for State Health Insurance | Mother Jones