Health Care on the Agenda for Legislature

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, has been gathering input about how to boost the number of health-care providers in the state.

“We do not have enough providers, whether it be physicians, nurses, technicians … facilities to handle our current population comfortably and easily,” Passidomo said during an appearance this summer on the City & State Florida podcast “Deeper Dive With Dara Kam.”

Also, House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, created the House Select Committee on Health Innovation this month. The committee will “review issues relating to access and affordability in health care,” Renner said in a memo to House members.

Appearing Monday in Jacksonville, DeSantis said efforts are underway to make health care more affordable.

“I've talked and spoken to her (Passidomo), we're going to work together on some health-care stuff,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also highlighted a bill he signed in May that places restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs, which play a role in negotiating drug prices while acting as something of middlemen in the health-care system.

The law, which went into effect July 1, increases state authority over PBMs; places restrictions on PBMs that have affiliated pharmacy businesses; and prevents PBMs from requiring patients to receive prescriptions by mail.

DeSantis and the state Cabinet on Monday approved rules that set up application forms for PBMs seeking to operate in Florida and fines for operating without state approval.

Passidomo has met with representatives of various groups, including the Florida Medical Association, the Florida Hospital Association and the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs. She held a similar idea-gathering process before the 2023 session to help craft a wide-ranging housing bill dubbed the “Live Local Act.”

Republican leaders already have made clear that expanding Medicaid eligibility --- a move long sought by Democrats --- won’t be an option.

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, on Monday called the state’s approach to Medicaid eligibility an “unacceptable absence of leadership.”

Hundreds of thousands of Floridians, including children, have lost Medicaid coverage in recent months after the end of a federal public-health emergency stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. During the public-health emergency, the state couldn’t drop people from Medicaid, including if they no longer met income-eligibility requirements.

“Nearly 50 percent have been disenrolled for procedural reasons, meaning that their coverage was terminated without them actually being determined ineligible,” Driskell said during a conference call with reporters.

“I guess children from low-income families in Florida don't poll well in the GOP primary with voters in Iowa or New Hampshire,” Driskell added.