Healthcare programs for impoverished kids in Florida were supposed to receive a $67 million influx, after officials learned that a healthcare corporation had been seriously overcharging for prescription drugs both in Florida as well as in 20 other states.
Instead, members of Governor Ron DeSantis's team
illegally siphoned off $10 million of that money, re-routing it to right-wing political action committees. It's now being referred to as the Hope Florida scandal - and we must demand justice.
Help us demand criminal charges for all those involved in concocting and authorizing this scheme, as well as an immediate return of those missing $10 million to children's healthcare programs! Sign the petition!The corporation Centene is a giant player in the US, overseeing various healthcare plans and contracting for Medicaid. Officials in 21 different states learned that, in total, they had collectively been overbilled by almost $1 billion. That's
$1 billion in taxpayer money, which went to overpaying an already profit-bloated corporation. In a settlement, the corporation agreed to pay out shares of money to each state. Florida was supposed to receive around $67 million.
That money was supposed to go right back into where it came from - health insurance for children in poverty.But when it was time for Centene to transfer the money, Governor DeSantis's team jumped in and asked for a change of plan. Instead, it requested that $10 million of this money - intended for children - go into
an organization associated with the Governor's wife. This organization, the Hope Florida Foundation, was set up to help Casey DeSantis fund her Hope Florida initiative, which tries to push poor families to rely more on churches and religiously-affiliated groups.
Once it was transferred, it very quickly disappeared again. In less than one month after the money entered the foundation's accounts, the Foundation had already sent this $10 million to two DeSantis-associated political action committees. Court documents show that
the majority of this money went to a political action committee chaired by DeSantis's own Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier. In fact, the documents also show that Uthmeier was in a specific "position of power" to help direct the money to this ultimate destination. DeSantis's Attorney General, Ashley Moody, apparently both knew of this strategy and "authorized" it.
Despite a wellspring of damning evidence, strangely, Florida authorities did not call Uthmeier, Mood, or DeSantis to testify before the grand jury during the investigation. And, despite the grand jury finding evidence of serious and calculated wrongdoing, no criminal charges have been filed.
Authorities have also conveniently kept the grand jury report sealed, meaning the public was not allowed to know about its contents. Uthmeier himself allegedly pressured officials to keep the results hidden. That remained true for 7 months, until a copy of the report leaked and CBS news reported on it in September 2026.
Taxpayers and kids in Florida were already ripped off by corporations. Now they've been ripped off by the DeSantis administration, which is still evading accountability. DeSantis and his team must be properly held responsible for this theft of taxpayer money. They must pay back those $10 million, and they must be criminally charged for their actions!Image: Photo from CBS of text from the Grand Jury report, reading: "We conclude that these funds were misappropriated as part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities." 