|
May 26, 2006 PRESS RELEASE
 |
WITH NO COMPASSION BUSH VETOS QUADRIPLEGIC MONEY 2006
NO REMORSE
The following is what the Bush administration vetoed, and the Govenor is pleased to be leaving 6.4 billion dollars for the next chief executive (New Governor). $1,050,000.00 for quadriplegics, and the priviso language, vetoed by Florida Governor Jeb Bush
|
From the funds in Specific Appropriation 658, $1,050,000 in non-recurring general revenue funds is provided for the purpose of developing a Nursing Home Transition Initiative pilot project in Miami-Dade County for individuals with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. These funds shall be used to prevent unnecessary nursing home placement or to transition individuals from nursing homes to the community. Authorized expenditures include the following: retention of a community reintegration coordinator and specialist; follow-up assessments of all individuals in skilled nursing facilities identified in the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program annual nursing home survey; housing assistance, including rent and utility deposits; basic and essential household items; home and vehicle modifications; durable medical equipment and supplies; and assistive technology assessments and devices to enhance function, safety and independence. Individuals requiring long-term community based supports are to be referred to all appropriate federal, state and community programs.
From the funds in Specific Appropriation 655, $250,000 in non-recurring tobacco settlement funds shall be provided for a demonstration project in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in Miami-Dade county to test the provision of direct services and to develop clinical standards of care for ventilation dependent patients. Patients selected for the project will be transferred from state approved trauma centers. For the purpose of the project, the department may reimburse the selected SNF an enhanced Medicaid rate. The project shall be limited to no more than 25 patients. The agency is authorized to seek federal Medicaid waivers as necessary to implement this project.
The above money was to implement the following two statutes. The governor has no respect for existing law, and in his veto power insures that the Florida Statutes below will not work for the people they were intended to help due to his callousness.
|
|
Title XXIX
PUBLIC HEALTH |
Chapter 381
PUBLIC HEALTH: GENERAL PROVISIONS |
|
|
|
381.7395 Legislative intent.--It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure the referral of individuals who have moderate-to-severe brain or spinal cord injuries to the brain and spinal cord injury program, a coordinated rehabilitation program administered by the department. The program shall provide eligible persons, as defined in s. 381.76, the opportunity to obtain the necessary rehabilitative services enabling them to be referred to a vocational rehabilitation program or to return to an appropriate level of functioning in their community. Further, it is intended that permanent disability be avoided, whenever possible, through prevention, early identification, emergency medical services and transport, and proper medical and rehabilitative treatment.
History.--s. 1, ch. 74-254; s. 148, ch. 77-104; s. 2, ch. 87-320; s. 31, ch. 94-324; s. 64, ch. 2000-153; s. 14, ch. 2000-367.
Note.--Former s. 413.46.
|
|
|
|
My comment is that Governor Bush is an extremely wicked person, who couldn't cut it as a quadriplegic for a week. He has no compassion for those quadriplegics in desperate straights, incarcerated against their will in nursing homes where they do not belong. Governor Bush in his actions sanction the unofficial policy of sending quadriplegics to nursing homes in lieu of a community based residential setting. He ignores the intent of a 1976 state statute to search the nursing homes for quadriplegics to get them into more appropriate housing settings.
The Bush quote "We lead the nation in the amount of cash that is held in reserve for a rainy day, he said "and Lord knows,in Florida we have our rainy days." It is incredible that this wicked governor can invoke the Lord's name while he does such wicked things in the name of meeting his conservative critieria with his veto power.
The bad news is more wicked candidates are running for Governor, and if elected, it will be more of Bushes "conservative criteria for use of public funds"--From Bill Cotterell article "Bush approves record budget". The governor's veto included money for trauma care center funding.
I urge every media person with an interest in health needs of Floridians to contact the Tallahassee based bureau chief, Tom Dellia, to explain better the magnitude of the above two line item vetos.
THE FOLLOWING “BUSH 2005 VETO MESSAGE” IS PART OF THE JEB BUSH GOVERNOR LEGACY:
2005 Veto List
Line # Title GR/WCF Trust Total
595 University of Miami Brain and Spinal Cord Research and Development (Dade) $926,000 - 926,000
595 University of Florida Brain and Spinal Cord Research and Development (Alachua) $500,000 - 500,000
Prepared by Denny R. Wood, President, Florida Paraplegic Association, Inc. 305-253-2563
Cell 305-978-0870
cc: media, legislators, others too numerous to list.
|
