Manna from heaven?

President Barack Obama will ink the deal this week to send manna from heaven to the downtrodden in our nation. The poor Wall Street guys have been bailed out so it is now time for the lesser folk to get some due.
Regardless of ones political stripes the federal largesse is welcome although not everyone is happy with nor confident that the 'economic stimulus' will work as advertised.
Yet for those of us who toil in the field of human service the prospect of new capital is welcome particularly in the arena of Medicaid.
But now comes the hard part: galvanizing legislative will to find creative means to make the more than $4 billion in Medicaid funds work for those for whom it is intended. We can only hope that there will sufficient federal strings to avoid some fast and loose play when it comes to divying up the pie.
For starters, let us use the new money to change the system in place for how services are delivered to people with disabilities. Next, develop a more reasonable and equitable way to distribute services. After that give the providers some reief so that the current system does not tank.
When the Medicaid waiver hit Florida big time some many years back, the state opened the floodgates and allowed "any willing provider" to hang up a service shingle without first determining some qualifications or insuring protection to the existing providers. The watershed of providers merely diluted the market and weakend the overall system. This mistake need not be repeated.