Rick Scott : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Richard Lynn Scott is an American politician and businessman serving as the junior us senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019.

Scott may be a graduate of the University of Missouri–Kansas City and therefore the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. In 1987, after serving within the us Navy and becoming a firm partner, he co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Columbia later merged with another corporation to make Columbia/HCA, which eventually became the nations largest private for-profit health care company. Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the corporate defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs. The Department of Justice ultimately fined the corporate $1.7 billion in what was at the time the most important health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. Following his departure from Columbia/HCA, Scott became a speculator and pursued other business interests. In 2009, he founded Conservatives for Patients Rights.

Scott ran for governor of Florida in 2010. He defeated Bill McCollum during a vigorously contested Republican primary , then narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Alex Sink within the election. Scott was reelected in 2014, defeating former governor Charlie Crist. He was barred by term limits from running for reelection in 2018 and instead ran for the us Senate.

Scott won the 2018 United States Senate election, defeating Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. The initial election results were so close that they triggered a compulsory recount. The recount showed that Scott had won by 10,033 votes; Nelson then conceded the race. Scott took office following the expiration of his term as governor of Florida on January 8, 2019.

On November 20, 2020, Scott announced he tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing mild symptoms.

Rick Scott Education

Scott graduated from North Kansas City highschool in 1970. He attended junior college and enlisted within the us Navy in 1970. Scott was within the Navy for 29 months and served on the USS Glover (FF-1098) as a radar technician.

Scott attended college on the GI Bill, and graduated from the University of Missouri–Kansas City with a Bachelor of Science in business administration. He earned a Juris Doctor degree by working his way through Southern Methodist University. He was licensed by the Texas Bar to practice law on November 6, 1978.

Rick Scott Net Worth

Scotts net worth was estimated at US$219 million in 2010, $84 million in 2012, and $133 million in 2013. On July 1, 2015, it had been reported that Scotts net worth had grown to $147 million, $149 million on New Years Eve , 2016, and $232 million on New Years Eve , 2017. As of August 2018, his net worth is estimated at $255 million. As of August 2020, it had been reported that Scotts net worth had grown to $555 million.

Rick Scott Family

Rick Scott was born Richard Lynn Myers in Bloomington, Illinois, on December 1, 1952. Scott never met his biological father, Gordon William Myers, who was described by Scotts mother, Esther J. Scott (1928 – 2012), as an abusive alcoholic. Scotts parents divorced in his infancy.

In 1954, Esther married Orba George Scott Jr. (died 2006), a teamster . Orba adopted Rick, who took his stepfathers surname and have become referred to as Richard Lynn Scott. Scott was raised in North Kansas City, Missouri, the second of 5 children. His family was lower-middle-class and struggled financially; Esther Scott worked as a clerk at J. C. Penney, among other jobs.

On April 20, 1972, Scott, then aged 19, married his highschool sweetheart, Frances Annette Holland (born February 11, 1952), who was 20 years old. The couple has two daughters and 6 grandsons. They sleep in Naples, Florida, and are founding members of Naples Community Church.

Rick Scott Wife and Children

On April 20, 1972, Scott, then aged 19, married his highschool sweetheart, Frances Annette Holland (born February 11, 1952), who was 20 years old. The couple has two daughters and 6 grandsons. They sleep in Naples, Florida, and are founding members of Naples Community Church.

Rick Scott Career and Achievement

Scott made his first raid business while working his way through college and school of law, initially buying and reviving a failing doughnut shop (the Flavor Maid Do-Nut) by adding workplace delivery rather than counting on pedestrian traffic . He later bought and revived another doughnut shop. After graduating from school of law , Scott worked as an attorney at the firm of Johnson & Swanson in Dallas, Texas.

Columbia Hospital Corporation

In 1988, Scott and Richard Rainwater, a financier from Fort Worth , each put up $125,000 in capital in their new company, Columbia Hospital Corporation; they borrowed the remaining money needed to get two struggling hospitals in El Paso for $60 million. Then they acquired a neighboring hospital and shut it down. Within a year, the remaining two were doing far better . By the top of 1989, Columbia Hospital Corporation owned four hospitals with a complete of 833 beds.

In 1992, Columbia made a stock purchase of Basic American Medical, which owned eight hospitals, primarily in southwestern Florida. In September 1993, Columbia did another stock purchase, worth $3.4 billion, of Galen Healthcare, which had been spun off by Humana Inc. several months earlier. At the time, Galen had approximately 90 hospitals. After the acquisition , Galen stockholders had 82% of the stock within the combined company, with Scott still running the corporate.

Columbia/HCA

In April 1987, Scott made his first plan to buy the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). While still a partner at Johnson & Swanson, Scott formed the HCA Acquisition Company with two former executives of Republic Health Corporation, Charles Miller and Richard Ragsdale. With financing from Citicorp conditional on acquisition of HCA, the proposed company offered $3.85 billion for 80 million shares at $47 each, meaning to assume a further $1.2 billion in debt, for a complete $5 billion deal. After HCA declined the offer, the bid was withdrawn.

In 1994, Columbia Hospital Corporation merged with HCA, "forming the only largest for-profit health care company within the country." Scott became CEO of Columbia/HCA. consistent with The ny Times, " but a decade, Mr. Scott had built a corporation he founded with two small hospitals in El Paso into the worlds largest health care company – a $20 billion giant with about 350 hospitals, 550 home health care offices and many other medical businesses in 38 states."

On Saint Joseph , 1997, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the interior Revenue Service and therefore the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the corporate . Eight days after the initial raid, Scott signed his last SEC report as a hospital executive. Four months later, the board of directors pressured him to resign as chairman and CEO. He was succeeded by Thomas F. Frist Jr. Scott was paid $9.88 million during a settlement, and left owning 10 million shares of stock then worth quite $350 million. the administrators had been warned within the companys annual public reports to stockholders that incentives Columbia/HCA offered doctors could conflict of a federal anti-kickback law passed so as to limit or eliminate instances of conflicts of interest in Medicare and Medicaid.

During Scotts 2000 deposition, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment 75 times. In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in what was at the time the most important health care fraud settlement in U.S. history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the govt by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. It also admitted to fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. It filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks within the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. additionally , it gave doctors "loans" never meaning to be repaid, free rent, free furniture , and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the us government $631 million, plus interest, and $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, additionally to $250 million paid up thereto point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims. In all, civil lawsuits cost HCA quite $2 billion to settle; at the time, this was the most important fraud settlement in U.S. history.

Venture Capitalist

After leaving Columbia/HCA in 1997, Scott launched Richard L. Scott Investments, based in Naples, Florida (originally in Stamford, Connecticut), which has stakes in health care, manufacturing and technology companies. Between 1998 and 2001, he purchased 50% of CyberGuard Corporation for about $10 million. Among his investors was Metro Nashville finance director David Manning.

In 2006, CyberGuard was sold to Secure Computing for quite $300 million. In February 2005, Scott purchased Continental Structural Plastics, Inc. (CSP) in Detroit, Michigan. In July 2006, CSP purchased Budd Plastics from ThyssenKrupp, making CSP the most important industrial composites molder in North America.

In 2005–06, Scott provided the initial round of funding of $3 million to Alijor.com (named for the primary three letters of his two daughters names), which offered hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers the chance to post information about their prices, hours, locations, insurance accepted, and private backgrounds online. Scott co-founded the corporate together with his daughter Allison.

In 2008, Alijor was sold to HealthGrades. In May 2008, Scott purchased Drives, one among the worlds leading independent designers and makers of industrial quality drive chain-based products and assemblies for industrial and agricultural applications and precision-engineered augers for agricultural, material handling, construction and related applications. Scott reportedly has an interest during a chain of family fun centers/bowling alleys, S&S Family Entertainment, in Kentucky and Tennessee led by Larry Schmittou, a minors team owner.

Americas Health Network (AHN)

In July 1997, Columbia/HCA Healthcare purchased a interest in Americas Health Network (AHN), the primary 24-hour health care cable channel. They pulled out of the deal on the day of the closing because Scott and Vanderwater were terminated, causing the immediate layoffs of quite 250 people in Orlando. Later that very same year, Scott became majority owner of AHN.

In 1998, Scott and Vandewater led a gaggle of investors who gave AHN a serious infusion of money in order that the corporate could still operate. By early 1999, the network was available in 9.5 million American homes.

In mid-1999 AHN merged with Fit TV, a subsidiary of Fox; the mixture was renamed The Health Network. Later that year, during a deal between News Corp. and WebMD, the latter received half-ownership of The Health Network. WebMD planned to relaunch The Health Network as WebMD Television within the fall of 2000, with new programming, but that company announced cutbacks and restructuring in September 2000, and, in January 2001, News Corp. regained 100% ownership. In September 2001, Fox Cable Networks Group sold The Health Network to its main rival, the invention Health Channel, for $155 million in cash plus a tenth equity stake in Discovery Health.

Solantic

Solantic, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was co-founded in 2001 by Scott and Karen Bowling, a former television anchor Scott met after Columbia bought whats now Memorial Hospital in 1995.

Solantic opened its first urgent care center in 2002. It provides urgent care services, immunizations, physicals, drug screening, and look after injured workers. The corporation attracts patients who dont have insurance, cannot get appointments with their medical care physicians, or dont have medical care physicians. Solantic is an alternate to the emergency department care that these sorts of patients often seek, or for not seeing a doctor in the least. In 2006, Scott said that his plans for Solantic were to determine a national brand of medical clinics.

In August 2007, the corporate received a $40 million investment from a personal equity firm and said that it expected to open 35 clinics by the top of 2009, with annual revenues of $100 million once of these clinics were open, compared to $20 million at the time. As of March 2009, Solantic had 24 centers, beat Florida.

Solantic was the target of an employment discrimination suit that claimed that there had been a policy to not hire elderly or obese applicants, preferring "mainstream" candidates. it had been settled for an undisclosed sum on May 23, 2007. Scott skilled Salon regarding the claims of discrimination remarking that "currently 53 percent of Solantics employees are white, 20 percent black and 17 percent Hispanic."

Pharmaca

In 2003, Scott invested $5.5 million in Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacies, which operates drugstores/pharmacies within the Western us that provide vitamins, herbal medicine, skin products, homeopathic medicines, and prescriptions.

Other Work

In the 1990s, Scott was a partner of George W. Bush as co-owner of the Texas Rangers.

Scott founded and managed Naples, Florida-headquartered Novosan, marketer of the Viosan Health Generation food supplements, which are criticized by medicine critic and Quackwatch webmaster Stephen Barrett for being promoted with non-explicit suggestions that they might cure various diseases in violation of federal law.

Political Career

In February 2009, Scott founded Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), which he said was intended to place pressure on Democrats to enact health care legislation supported free-market principles. As of March 2009, he had given about $5 million for a planned $20 million advertising campaign by CPR.

Governor of Florida

Elections

2010

On April 9, 2010, Scott announced his candidacy for the 2010 Republican Party nomination for governor of Florida. He ran against Democratic nominee Alex Sink.

Susie Wiles, former communications chief to Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, served as Scotts campaign manager, and Tony Fabrizio was his chief pollster. it had been reported on May 7 that Scotts campaign had already spent $4.7 million on television and radio ads. His first video advertisement was released to YouTube on April 13.

During the first campaign, Scotts opponent, Bill McCollum, made a problem of Scotts role at Columbia/HCA. Scott countered that the FBI had never targeted him. Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald contended that a 1998 bill sponsored by McCollum would have made it harder to prosecute Medicare fraud cases, and was counter to his current views and allegations. Scott won the August primary with approximately 47% percent of the vote to McCollums 43%. By the date of the Tampa debate between Scott and Sink (October 25, 2010), Scott had spent $60 million of his own money on the campaign compared to Sinks reported $28 million. Scott campaigned as a part of the party movement.

The Fort Myers News Press quoted Scott as saying he spent roughly $78 million of his own money on the campaign, although other figures indicate he spent slightly over $75 million. He won the overall election, defeating Sink by around 68,000 votes, or 1.29%. He took office because the 45th governor of Florida on January 4, 2011.

2014

In October 2011, Scott announced that he would run reelection in 2014. His political funding committee, Lets Get to figure, had raised $28 million for his campaign as of May 2014.

As of early June 2014, Scott had spent almost $13 million since advance television advertisements attacking former governor Charlie Crist, who then seemed to be the likely Democratic nominee, and who was eventually nominated. The ads resulted during a tightening of the race, mainly thanks to a decline in Crists favorability ratings, while Scotts favorability ratings didnt increase.

By late September 2014, Scotts television ad spending had exceeded $35 million and in mid-October reached $56.5 million, compared to $26.5 million by Crist. On October 22 it had been reported that Scotts total spending had exceeded $83 million and he announced that, having previously said he wouldnt do so, he would invest his own money into the campaign, alleged to be the maximum amount as $22 million.

Crist hoped to draw strong support from Floridas quite 1.6 million registered black voters, an attempt that was challenging given his previous political career as a Republican. A September 2014 Quinnipiac University poll revealed his support among black voters was 72%, well below the 90% analysts believed he needed to defeat Scott.

Scott and Crist met in an October 15 debate held by the Florida news agency at Broward College. Scott refused to require the stage for seven minutes because Crist had alittle blower under his lectern. The incident was dubbed "fangate" by media sources like Politico. On November 4, 2014, Scott and Carlos Lopez-Cantera won the overall election against Crist and Annette Taddeo-Goldstein by 64,000 votes. The Libertarian candidates, Adrian Wyllie and Greg Roe, received 223,356 votes.

During Hurricane Irma, Scott led Florida through the most important mass evacuation in U.S. history. Unemployment, taxpayer debt, and crime declined statewide during his tenure. He signed a repeal of Floridas 1985 growth management laws, reduced funding for water management districts, reduced oversight at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and supported increased funding for Everglades restoration. Scott supported permanent tax cuts and "focused on job numbers instead of on running state agencies or making sweeping policy changes".

U.S. Senate

Elections

2018

After months of speculation a few potential run, Scott officially announced on April 9, 2018, that he would challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson within the 2018 election.

Scott defeated Rocky De La Fuente within the Republican primary. within the election , Scotts involvement during a large Medicare fraud case stirred controversy. Scott responded with ads accusing Nelson of getting cut Medicare benefits and stolen from Medicare; fact-checkers found that both of Scotts assertions were false. During the campaign, Scott called Nelson a "socialist", an assertion PolitiFact described as "pants-on-fire" false. During the campaign, Scott sought to avoid mentioning Trump and sometimes criticized or distanced himself from actions of the Trump administration, whereas within the past he had used his friendship with Trump to spice up his profile and had been an early and vocal supporter of Trump in 2016. Trump endorsed Scott for Senate.

The initial election results showed Scott leading Nelson by 12,562 votes, or 0.15% of the vote. Under Florida law, a manual recount is triggered if election results show a margin of but 0.5% of the vote. Both candidates filed lawsuits in reference to the recount. After the recount, Florida elections officials announced on November 18, 2018, that Scott had prevailed. Scott received 50.05% of the vote to Nelsons 49.93%; the margin of victory was 10,033 votes out of 8.19 million votes cast. Nelson then conceded. it had been the foremost expensive senate campaign within the nation in 2018. After the race, Scotts Super PAC, New Republican PAC, received criticism from across the political spectrum for its aggressive practices and was the topic of several FEC complaints for multiple violations of federal election law; the Super PACs finances are chaired by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, who personally donated a minimum of $10 million to the PAC.

Tenure

The Senate term for the 116th Congress began on January 3, 2019, but Scotts term as governor ended on January 8. On December 4, 2018, Scotts office announced that he would finish his term as governor and not resign early. Scott attended the ceremonial swearing-in of his successor as governor, Ron DeSantis, on the morning of January 8, 2019, ahead of Floridas historic Old Capitol. Scott left the ceremony early to fly to Washington, D.C., and was sworn in to the Senate by vice chairman Mike Pence later that afternoon.

In January 2019, Scott encouraged Trump to declare a national emergency to create a border wall if Congress wouldnt give him the funds to try to to so. In February 2019, when Trump declared a national emergency, Scott applauded the choice.

In April 2019, amid involves an American military intervention in Venezuela, Scott said that the Maduro regime was perpetrating a "genocide" which the U.S. was "not aggressive enough" about things . Fact-checkers and experts described Scotts assertion of a genocide as false and misguided. Scott called on the U.S. to position its military assets to be prepared to reply to events in Venezuela.

In May 2020, Scott voted for an amendment co-sponsored by Senators Steve Daines and Ron Wyden that might have required federal intelligence and enforcement agencies to get court warrants when collecting web program data from americans, nationals, or residents under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

After Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, Scott sided with Senator Mitch McConnell and called on her replacement to be voted on before that years presidential election.

After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election while making false claims of fraud, Scott voted to object to seating the electors from Pennsylvania but voted against the opposite objection raised for seating the electors from Arizona. Both objections were rejected by the Senate 92-7 and 93-6 respectively. In April 2021, Scott ran unopposed for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and was formally selected on November 10, 2020, succeeding Senator Todd Young.

In 2021, Scott voted against the American Rescue Plan Act, and called upon Florida and other states to reject federal assistance from the package.

On May 28, 2021, Scott voted against creating an independent commission to research the 2021 us Capitol attack.