Reporter falsely asserts DeSantis spent $577 million on ‘anti-immigrant’ dashboard
Editor’s note: Since the time of publication, the Palm Beach Post has stealth-corrected its story. Click here for the original.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is firing back after a Palm Beach Post columnist asserted, falsely, that Florida has spent more than half-a-billion dollars on a single so-called “anti-immigrant online dashboard.”
Frank Cerabino wrote for the Palm Beach Post that $577 million was spent to create a dashboard which tracks the costs of hospital visits by illegal aliens.
The cost of these uncompensated hospital visits, put at $566 million statewide by the agency, is less than the cost of the $577 million taxpayers paid to create the anti-immigrant online dashboard.
Frank Cerabino
Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Deputy Chief of Staff Alecia Collins called out the report, noting the dashboard costed just $5,000 to create.
“Even the entirety of the legislative budget request for data collection was $567,882, which included the Florida Nursing Home Uniform Reporting System,” Collins said.
“I think it goes without saying that there is a huge difference between $567,882 and $577,000,000,” she said. “Writing an article like this without fact checking, or at a minimum reaching out to the Agency, is not responsible journalism. I hope you will hold your team to a higher standard.”
As of the morning of April 4, the story was still published on the Post’s website echoing the same false claim.
“Apparently the same journalists who wildly exaggerated COVID risks have not learned from their mistakes and remain proudly ignorant of data & statistics,” said DeSantis administration member Christina Pushaw, who called the story “media malpractice.”
The dashboard provides county-level totals for incurred costs from illegal aliens, and includes other statistics about how many “now lawfully present” admissions there have been.
The county with the highest cost is Miami-Dade at nearly a quarter-billion dollars.
In total, the dashboard reports that statewide, over 14,000 admissions were indicated as “not lawfully present.”
Among emergency department visits, over 40,000 were marked not in the country lawfully.
