Rick Scott Wants to Abolish Medicare & VA

As CEO of Columbia/HCA, Scott wanted Medicare and Medicaid abolished. Scott wanted all US health care to be privatized. This would also financially help companies such as Columbia/HCA. The poor and uninsured would be left at the mercy of private health care providers.

Scott also wanted to abolish the Veterans Administration in 1994.

"If you look at how the government runs VA hospitals and Medicare and Medicaid, you can see that the whole system is inefficient," Scott told the South Florida Business Journal the same year. "The things we are doing wrong in health care can be corrected if private business could run national health care administration."

Rachel Mayo of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that the VA provides "the best value in health care."

A key to the VHA’s turnaround was its close tracking of performance measurements. Providing higher quality care was a major focus for the system as changes were implemented. This started with a reengineering effort beginning in 1995, which was focused on making quality management more systematic.

The Obama administration and VA secretary Eric Shinseki ahve also done wonders to improve the VA system and accelerate the VA claims process that was stymied during the Bush Administration. 

Scott's companies Columbia/HCA and Solantic have both been accused of Medicare fraud. Can Scott be taken seriously as a voice on health care issues? The fact that Scott is accusing Sink of cutting the same Medicare system he wishes to destroy is ludicrous.

In a video deposition about Solantic, Scott took the fifth Amendment 75 times. He was also called an unindicted co-conspirator in the record $1.7 billion fine (Columbia) HCA received for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

source: http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2010/09/rick-scott-wants-to-abolish-medicare-va.html