Senate bill would take Confederate holidays off the books in Florida

TALLAHASSEE — After more than a century, birthdays of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, along with a Confederate Memorial Day, would no longer be legal holidays in Florida under a bill approved by a Senate committee Tuesday.

Over the objections of people who argued the proposal (SB 224) would erase Southern history, the Senate Community Affairs Committee voted 4-2 without debate or discussion to support the measure. The bill would remove the Lee, Davis and Confederate days from a list of 21 legal holidays on the books in Florida.

However, the bill must still get through two additional committees to reach the Sen- ate floor, while an identical House proposal (HB 227) has not appeared in committees.

Bill sponsor Lauren Book, D-Plantation, said her goal isn’t to erase history, but to undercut tributes to the Confederacy, “which upheld the institution of slavery and perpetuated inequality and division within our country.” American Council of Life Insurers. Physician Bruce Margolis, who represented the council at the meeting, said life insurance and long-term care insurance policies are different from health insurance, at least in part, because they are more often written on an individual basis instead of as part of group coverage. Margolis said genetic information could help insurers determine risks.

After more than an hour of debate, a House health care spending panel Tuesday put off action on a bill that would provide money to the Florida Department of Health for a study that could result in the creation of new type of provider known as dental therapists. House Health Care Appropriations Chairman Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, said the bill (HB 683) could be rescheduled in his panel.

Sponsored by Rep. Daniel Perez, R-Miami, the bill would provide $250,000 to study the delivery of dental care in Florida and examine recommendations to increase the number of mid-level dental providers, including community dental-health coordinators and dental therapists. The bill was amended so the study could also examA Senate committee Tuesday approved ine the possibility of a dental student-loan a bill that would bar life insurers and long- repayment program for 10 dentists who term care insurers from using customers’ agree to serve in medically underserved genetic information in decisions about writ- areas of the state. ing or canceling policies. But the bill was opposed by the Florida

The bill (SB 1106), sponsored by Sen. Aaron Dental Association, with lobbyist Joe Anne Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and approved Hart saying the state doesn’t have a dental by the Senate Banking and Insurance Comshortage and will have enough dentists “well mittee, would be similar to an already-exinto the year 2035.” She said the $250,000 isting ban on the use of genetic informa- for the study would be better directed toward tion in health insurance coverage. a dental student-loan forgiveness program

But the bill drew opposition from the proposed in another bill (HB 369).