Countering DeSantis, $10M Hope Florida donation came from Medicaid, draft shows

Last edited Wed Apr 23, 2025, 12:36 PM - Edit history (1)

The $10 million that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted to a state-created charity last year consisted of Medicaid dollars owed to state and federal taxpayers, contrary to what the governor and other officials have publicly asserted.

Three years ago, lawyers working with the state drew up a settlement agreement that said Florida’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene, overbilled taxpayers $67,048,611 for medications, according to a copy of a draft agreement obtained by the Times/Herald.

That’s the exact amount DeSantis officials settled on with Centene last year. But instead of returning all $67 million to state and federal coffers, they sent $10 million of it to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charity overseen by first lady Casey DeSantis.

The money was then sent to two nonprofit organizations that aren’t required to report how they spend their funds. Those “dark money” groups later gave $8.5 million to a political committee overseen by DeSantis’ chief of staff in a series of transactions that some Republican lawmakers believe were illegal. How Medicaid is allocated, which pays for health care services for the poor, is highly regulated.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/04/22/desantis-casey-medicaid-settlement-hope-charity-andrade/

Curiouser and curiouser...from the way I'm reading this article is that the entire $67M should have gone to Medicaid but $10M was carved out and provided to Hope Florida, which then dispensed those funds to groups that used the money to buy ads opposing the pro-marijuana and pro-abortion amendment initiatives. Using public funds for partisan political purposes sure seems illegal to me.