Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thursday a package of bills aimed at increasing the number of health care workers and promoting innovation in the industry. Over the next 10 years, the laws, which state lawmakers prioritized during this year’s legislative session, will cost the state $1.5 billion.
The four pieces of legislation (SB 7016, SB 7018, SB 330, and SB 1758) DeSantis signed during a press conference in southwest Florida make up the “Live Healthy” initiative spearheaded by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.
The plan focuses on retaining and attracting health care workers to the state, creating a loan program for innovative health care projects, establishing behavioral health teaching hospitals, and providing at-home and community-based services to Floridians with disabilities.
“We’ve recognized the need to have a really good health care workforce. We started by putting a lot into expanding nursing training in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said during the bill signing.
“So, you have way more resources than you did four or five years ago. Part of that is to keep up with the growth, but also just understanding that that’s an issue nationwide, even in states that are not growing. To see nurses, especially as more nurses retire, you need to have more, so we’ve been really leaning in on that, and we’re excited to do that. Now, there’s a series of bills that I’m going to sign up today, and I think it builds off a lot of the success.”
The governor also signed SB 322, which is a public-records exception for identifying information for practitioners taking part in interstate licensure compacts established in SB 7016.
Passidomo and other state lawmakers who shaped the initiative, such as Republican Sens. Gayle Harrell and Colleen Burton, attended the bill signing ceremony. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Taylor Hatch, director of the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities, were also in attendance.
Still no Medicaid expansion in Florida
During her remarks, Passidomo emphasized the need to increase the number of health care workers in Florida as the population increases and ages.
“We need more primary-care providers who play a vital role as the main point of contact in the health care system for families and seniors,” she said. “Access to health care is important at every phase of life. Insurance including Medicaid and Medicare does not guarantee access. Even Floridians with great insurance face barriers to care. Through ‘Live Healthy’ Florida will grow the health care workforce we need to serve our communities.”
Her expectations for the initiative are lofty, as she called it a game-changer during the ceremony. As DeSantis exited the venue, Passidomo gave him a hug.
“Our state will forever be changed in a really good way,” Passidomo said.
Although “Live Healthy” bills received near-unanimous approval in the Legislature, Passidomo’s reference to Medicaid, health care coverage for low-income people, stems from criticism from Democrats and advocacy groups that the state is one of 10 that hasn’t expanded the program.
“It’s commendable that the Legislature has put together such a robust package that invests in the health care workforce as a means to increase access to care,” said Erica Monet Li, a policy analyst at Florida Policy Institute, in a statement to Florida Phoenix when the Legislature passed SB 7016 and SB 7018.
“We recognize that this workforce investment will likely have a positive impact. At the same time, we know that the most effective way to increase access to health care in our state would be to close the coverage gap by expanding Medicaid, as 40 other states have done.”
Here’s a summary on what the laws do
SB 7016, the most extensive and expensive bill in the package, pours $717 million into a variety of things, such as increasing the number of residencies so medical school graduates can finish their training in the state, and expanding the telehealth minority maternity care program and tuition reimbursement programs for health care workers.
But most of the funds earmarked in SB 7016 go toward increasing the reimbursement rate service providers receive for Medicaid patients, meaning the amount of money Florida pays for taking patients covered by Medicaid.
SB 7018 establishes a 10-year loan program for projects that implement innovative technology, create workforce pathways, and increase public access to health care. Until the fiscal year 2033-2034, the Florida Legislature must deposit $50 million each year into the loan fund.
Both SB 7016 and SB 7018 became effective once DeSantis signed them. However, certain provisions of SB 7016 have specified dates for when they go into effect.
SB 330 establishes a behavioral-health teaching hospital designation for facilities to train mental health service providers, such as psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and family and marriage counselors. SB 1758 addresses the 8.6-year waiting period some Floridians with disabilities go through to access state-subsidized services that help them live on their own or with their families. Those two bills go into effect on July 1.
–Jackie LLanos, Florida Phoenix
Pogo says
@The Art of the Deal?
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Thursday a package of bills aimed at increasing the number of health care workers and promoting innovation in the industry. Over the next 10 years, the laws, which state lawmakers prioritized during this year’s legislative session, will cost the state $1.5 billion…”
Ya don’t say. Remember this — from 10 years ago?
“The intransigence of the Sunshine State’s lawmakers over expanding Medicaid eligibility will cost the state’s hospitals billions of dollars over the next several years…”
“…Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Florida is eligible for about $5 billion a year in federal aid…”
“…Texas, like Florida, has rejected Medicaid expansion and is currently passing on $100 billion in federal funding over the next decade.”
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/finance/lack-medicaid-expansion-will-cost-florida-hospitals-billions
Or this?
“DeSantis has rejected $11 billion in federal funding for Floridians in recent years…”
https://ground.news/article/desantis-led-florida-has-rejected-11-billion-in-federal-funding-in-recent-years
Do the math.
Atwp says
Will this decrease medical cost? Did the measles outbreak prompt the signing? Will this help retain health care workers and attract more health care workers?
Endless Dark Money says
nope just a plot to make their uneducated voters think they care. The money will never reach them but that irrelevant its more for the show. “increase access to public care” The health department wont see you if you work and make any money, you need to pay thousands of dollars a month so in case something happens you can pay thousands more. Access is there affordability is not. We should join every other developed nation in the world and provide our citizens some basic healthcare. In order to this the GOP must go
Former healthcare worker says
Obamacare aka The Affordable Care Act” was supposed to decrease medical costs. I was in healthcare at that time, so I am well aware of its effects.
Obamacare basically destroyed healthcare as we knew it, increased overwhelming time-consuming regulations which have driven up costs, put medical doctors out of private practice because they couldn’t afford to stay in private practice any longer and imposed overall a strangulation of the medical care system. Why? Never ending rules and regulations and paperwork for the federal government.
The result of Obamacare in the last 10+ years is that healthcare is overall more expensive for EVERYONE, it’s hard to get healthcare because you have to wait many weeks to months for an appointment and the healthcare profession (from CNA’s all the way up the chain to doctors, nurses, surgery centers, etc) are basically overwhelmed. Rules and regulations change daily and are required to be implemented immediately. Many many people have lost their jobs due to outsourcing to outside companies (many in India and other countries) to save the costs of having employees. I was one of those people who first had my income cut by 50 percent and then my job and my whole department of 26 people was outsourced with no notice. That work now goes to India. So much for HIPAA and privacy. So I know what I’m talking about.
Obamacare aka The Affordable Care Act (which is laughable because it’s increased healthcare costs across the board) has been the single most destructive piece of legislation to ever be passed completely 100 percent by Democrats. No Republicans voted for it because it was flawed from the beginning. In case you don’t know, members of the U.S. Congress are exempt from Obamacare, as they don’t want to get their healthcare from the Obamacare system.
I unfortunately know firsthand about what happened to healthcare after Obamacare (laughably called The Affordable Care Act). Healthcare in the United States was destroyed by the passage of that law.
Regarding your last sentence, “Will this help retain healthcare workers and attract more healthcare workers?” Read what I typed above. Healthcare jobs are being outsourced because it’s too expensive to have employees now. I’m not saying ALL, but I’ve seen firsthand how many jobs have been outsourced because of Obamacare causing medical costs to skyrocket.
Atwp says
Thank you. If Obama Care is so bad, what care do the Republicans have?
Laurel says
Atwp: Nothing. “Repeal and replace” fizzled off into space, as there never was a plan and still is no plan. Also, apparently, Former Healthcare Worker above doesn’t seem to remember that people commonly lost their very homes to foreclosures do to healthcare costs the could not pay, and the many people who flat out died because they could not pay to get proper healthcare, all before the Affordable Healthcare Act was enacted. Here in America!
We also often hear, as above, that we have to wait for weeks or months to get appointments, all because of AHA, and how terrible it is for Canadians to have to wait for their “socialized medicine.” Ask a Canadian. They will tell you that’s misinformation.
We deserve better healthcare. Yet, I hear how terrible President Biden is while he is negotiating down prescription costs for many different drugs. Meanwhile, there are plenty of voters out there who are more than willing to vote against their own best interests and vote for Republicans who have stated, repeatedly, that they want to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Pogo says
@Public health and consumer fraud alert; Audience: Everyone
A chronic brain disease (Limbaugh Syndrome) has become endemic to liars in Florida.
Symptoms of its end stage:
Rush in mouth and throat, confusion, oral and written delirium, involuntary inappropriate speech and body movements.
If you have been exposed to Limbaugh Syndrome, expeditious treatment using Google, or an equivalent, is urgently recommended.
Examples of end stage Limbaugh Syndrome:
Confirmed case: 386 word screed against the Affordable Care Act by a disgruntled opponent that is a litany of nonsense, exaggeration, and ordinary goddamn lies
https://www.google.com/search?q=accomplishments+of+affordable+care+act
Confirmed case study
https://www.google.com/search?q=members+of+the+U.S.+Congress+are+exempt+from+Obamacare
Contact reality for further information.