“Hey, Pedro, nice to see that Puerto Rico is now willing to extort Florida (et al) because you folks haven’t been able to put a sane budget together for YEARS!”
My immediate thought was “Nice business ya got there – shame if something were to happen to it”. The above was part of an email that I sent back to Pedro Cerame (Communications Director, Federal Affairs Administration, Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico, pcerame@prfaa.pr.gov, (202) 394-1750). You see, he sent out an email blast that the Puerto Rico Governor, Ricardo Rossello, signed. In effect, the message was (my words) “help me persuade the Feds to forestall a cut in Medicaid or 10s of thousands of Puerto Ricans will move to Florida, wrecking your State budget”. And this guy, Pedro, thought that this was a great idea? Here’s the letter (emphasis mine):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Puerto Rico Governor Rosselló Requests Gov. Scott’s Assistance in Solving Puerto Rico Healthcare Crisis
(March 20th, 2017 – San Juan, Puerto Rico) The Governor of Puerto Rico, Hon. Ricardo A. Rosselló Nevares, has alerted Governor Rick Scott of Florida in a letter, calling his attention to the “rapidly approaching drop in federal healthcare funding for Puerto Rico, known as Medicaid cliff,” which will likely result in a substantial economic impact to the Florida budget. The full text of the letter is attached.
The ¨Medicaid cliff¨ is a scenario caused by funding shortfalls built in to the unique and inequitable healthcare funding mechanisms for Puerto Rico. If realized, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans, all natural born citizens of the United States, will likely continue to relocate to Florida to qualify for Medicaid, costing Florida taxpayers $2.5 billion over the coming decade.
In the letter, the Governor states,
I’m reaching out to ask for your help in activating Florida’s Congressional delegation as a voice of reason in Congress on this issue which is entirely avoidable. Moreover, Congress has a perfect opportunity to deal with this as it works to approve legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Entire letter below.)
Similar letters have also been sent to the governors of the following states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Click below to access a fact sheet on the Medicaid program of Puerto Rico and information on the Medicaid Cliff: https://we.tl/5pSI86woqw
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Pedro Cerame
Communications Director
Federal Affairs Administration
Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico
Email: pcerame@prfaa.pr.gov
Phone: (202) 394-1750
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And the actual 2 page letter (an image, not text so click on it to embiggen it:
So, my response was about the only reasonable one I could think of – really, you REALLY sent this out???
Hey, Pedro, nice to see that Puerto Rico is now willing to extort Florida (et al) because you folks haven’t been able to put a sane budget together for YEARS! That tells me a lot. How’s that message of “get us money or we will cost YOU money” really going to play out in the other State capitals, eh? Victim status is a stupid way to go through life.And you wonder why your people are now voting with their feet?Expect a lot of this from the conservative websites you sent this to – I’ll send it along to a few more.– SkipGraniteGrok.com
He did write back – I’ll put it up tomorrow.