Senate plan seeks to expand access not Medicaid

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and two key lieutenants have rolled out a plan aimed at expanding access to health care, with a focus on increasing the number of doctors, encouraging technological innovation and boosting medical screenings.

The legislative package calls for spending nearly $900 million to shift patients away from emergency rooms, offset hospitals’ training costs and help doctors pay off debt.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Passidomo called the plan a “very, very robust” package with “very creative concepts that will help address the workforce needs” as the state’s population continues to grow.

“As you know, about 1,000 people a day move to the state of Florida, many of them are older. Everybody needs health care. In Florida today, we do not have enough health care personnel to take care of the Floridians that are living here,” said Passidomo, R-Naples. “And so our whole goal is, how do we grow our health care system in Florida, our workforce, and that’s how we started.”

Detailed bills will be filed Friday, and the Senate Health Policy Committee will take up the proposals next week, Passidomo said.

Currently, more than 11% of Floridians lack insurance, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Only four states had higher uninsured rates than Florida in 2022, according to a September report. The rates reflect insurance provided in employer-based plans and purchased privately, along with coverage through government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Democrats have long called for expanding Medicaid eligibility, but Republicans have rejected the idea — with Passidomo reiterating her opposition Thursday.

“That’s just a talking point. Everybody’s gonna get seen. We just want to make sure they get the quality — efficient, effective and economical,” Passidomo said. “That’s just a talking point right now. Medicaid expansion doesn’t work, and we’re gonna take care of everybody. … We’re already paying for a lot.”

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, called the Senate plan disappointing.

“Every Floridian deserves the freedom to be healthy, prosperous and safe, and that certainly includes the ability to have access to high-quality, affordable health care,” Driskell told reporters. “And in Florida, that necessarily means Medicaid expansion. For our Republican colleagues to refer to it as simply ‘a talking point’ that wouldn’t do anything is utterly unserious.”

Florida is among only 10 states has not expanded Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act. The state could draw down $4 billion in federal money through expansion of the joint state and federal program for low-income

people, Driskell said.

The Senate’s “Live Healthy” plan would expand lower-income Floridians’ access to free and charitable clinics by raising an income-eligibility threshold.

The Senate’s proposal also seeks to expand or create programs to divert people from emergency rooms and get more people screened for medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

For example, it would require hospitals to help patients “access appropriate care settings” in non-emergencies and to encourage patients to establish a “medical home” to prevent future emergency room visits for non-emergency situations.

Hospitals could direct patients to urgent-care facilities or primary-care practices nearby.

“A big goal of ours is that every Floridian has a medical home, has a primary-care physician who they can go to the next time they have a fever, instead of walking through the doors of an emergency department,” said Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Colleen Burton, a Lakeland Republican who took part in Thursday’s rollout.

The proposal would seek to boost the health care workforce by taking steps such as:

„ ■ Making it easier for foreigntrained physicians to practice in Florida.

„ ■ Expanding loan-repayment assistance for doctors and dentists who remain in the state after graduating. Recipients of the assistance would have to commit to serving Medicaid patients and providing volunteer services.

„ ■ Creating a new, limited license for medical school graduates who have passed their exams but have not begun residency programs.