Gov. backs health care savings bill

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday called for more transparency about health care costs to help patients save money.

At a morning news conference at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, the governor endorsed a bill by state Sen. Manny Diaz, R-Hialeah, that would reward patients who shop around for health care by allowing them to share in the savings with their insurance company. The governor praised Memorial’s web-based system, which allows patients to easily and quickly look up the total cost and the out-ofpocket cost of various procedures, both with and without insurance.

“If they’re choosing things that are more costeffective, then the insurer can send a certain amount of the savings that the insurer is getting back to the patient,” DeSantis said, speaking to a crowd of physicians, staff and hospital executives at the hospital’s conference system. “If a patient can feel a positive impact from making these decisions, then they’re more apt to do it.

“This is one tool we’re looking at to create some downward pressure on the cost of all this stuff,” he said.

Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, ridiculed the governor’s announcement as a small-bore proposal that will do little to help sick people or control costs. She called for the governor to back the expansion of Medicaid, which would allow it to cover more people as authorized under the federal Affordable Care Act.

“If Ron DeSantis really cared about expanding access to affordable health care he would back Medicaid Expansion. Instead he’s proposed another Band-aid to fix Florida’s broken health care system that will do little for the hundreds of thousands of Floridians without access to care. This plan is simply too little, too late — and will do nothing to help Floridians who lack the care they need.”