Coral Gables Watch

“Even though states still pay 10 percent [for the new patients], they would still come out ahead,” said Robin Rudowitz, the co-director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured. “I think that changes the math.” An analysis by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that states would gain substantially under the Democratic proposal: Florida could receive $3.5 billion. North Carolina would be in line for $2.4 billion. Georgia could bring in $1.9 billion. Tennessee could collect $1.7 billion. Wisconsin could gain $1.3 billion. Missouri could receive $1.7 billion. Kansas could bring in $330 million. Texas stands to gain the most, with a potential of bringing in nearly $6 billion. The extra money would end after two years.

U.S. House Democrats are trying again to entice a dozen holdout states—many of them in the South—to expand Medicaid coverage with the prospect of billions of dollars in federal cash. The new offer, included in a massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that House Democrats are pushing through committees this week, could help provide health coverage to more than 2 million Americans. They are falling between the cracks in government programs in the midst of the pandemic and economic downturn. Most are childless adults who earn some money but still fall below the federal poverty level. In the vast majority of states, people in that situation could qualify for Medicaid, a public program that provides health insurance to low-income people and people with disabilities. But in 14 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid, they are still ineligible for that program. Meanwhile, they are still too poor to get subsidized private coverage through insurance exchanges.

Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli got up on the wrong side of the bed again. Valdes-Fauli , whose arrogance and discourtesy drips in acrimony, was particularly rude and ungracious Tuesday at the Coral Gables meeting to discuss the zoning code update (read: rewrite). More so than usual. It all started when someone reminded him how rude he was at the first reading, where he went on a tirade and then stormed out, never to return and listen to the constituents concerns and comments. “No one, no one objected to the mayor’s infantile behavior,” said Leon Kellner, who was fed up with the “utter disdain city government has shown the residents.” He accused city staffers and commissioners alike of mischaracterizing the process with terms like “modernizing, updating and streamlining,” when it was a “wholesale rewrite.” And particularly Commissioner Pat Keon of “continuing the lie. “This is the same person who wants our vote as mayor.”