Health care reform is the least understood, most misrepresented and arguably the most critical issue in the country today. While attorneys general of 20 states, including Florida, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses seek to have the law declared unconstitutional and some candidates for public office advocate its repeal, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is being implemented. And implementation of meaningful health care reform has been identified as a critical federal and state budget issue that will continue regardless of the outcome of the litigation.
Federal and state budget analysts and legislators struggle each year with trying to figure out how to meet the rising costs of Medicare and Medicaid. Their objective has been primarily to slow the rate of growth so increasing costs bear some relationship to increasing tax revenue. Doug Cook, former Florida budget director and director of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, described health care costs as a tapeworm. Left untreated, it will consume a greater part of the state budget, displacing other funding priorities. There is little question the rate of growth of federal and state spending on health care is unsustainable.
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