Gov. Rick Scott's "blind trust" has made millions from companies that sold drugs to Florida

Medicaid paid drug-maker in Scott’s portfolio hundreds of millions

Gov. Rick Scott and his wife Ann have drawn profits of at least $250,000 — and as much as $2.1 million — from a drug company whose sky-high prices are draining state Medicaid coffers.
Florida Medicaid, the perennially cash-strapped health program for Florida’s poorest and sickest residents, has paid as much as $770 million for Gilead Sciences drugs since 2013, a Palm Beach Post analysis shows. That bill includes Gilead’s $1,000-a-pill cure for the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, a cost that generated congressional scrutiny and forced Florida Medicaid to ration life-saving treatment.

And when other Medicaid programs across the nation collectively slowed purchases of Gilead’s expensive drug in 2017 in favor of cheaper drugs from other manufacturers, Florida did the opposite.

After splitting its spending among various manufacturers in 2016, Florida Medicaid went all in on Gilead, with 83 percent of its hepatitis C payments in 2017 going to the company in the stock portfolio of the governor and his wife, The Post found.

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