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Is K.B. Forbes, executive director of Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a political activist who attacks hospitals because he's funded by the insurance industry?
Or, as Forbes and his Los Angeles nonprofit claim in recent television ads, are Florida hospitals economic racists because of their "egregious" overcharging of black and Hispanics who are uninsured?
The mud was flying fast and furious in Tallahassee last week as the Florida Hospital Association countered criticism from Forbes' group with zingers of their own. The FHA, which said its members provided $1.5-billion in uncompensated care to the uninsured in 2002, said Forbes has taken $100,000 from a foundation controlled by J. Patrick Rooney, then head of Golden Rule Insurance Co. It also said he previously worked on the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan.
Forbes, who declines to identify individual supporters, counters that the FHA is trying to suppress his group's First Amendment rights.
Meanwhile, the real battle is taking place behind the scenes, where legislators and lobbyists are fighting over an effort by HMOs to limit how much they pay for emergency service given to their members in nonnetwork hospitals.
The two sides also are arguing over making hospitals' master charge lists public. Insurers say consumers have the right to know what hospitals are charging. Hospitals say publicizing such information would give HMOs an advantage in contract negotiations.
Consumers, who usually choose the closest hospital in an emergency and the one recommended by their doctor for elective procedures, probably couldn't care less about seeing hospitals' charge lists.
If they are insured, the hospital charges bear little relation to what their insurer will pay. And if they're uninsured, they could never afford those prices anyway.