Florida House and Senate leaders reached a final deal on the state budget late Sunday night, the last step in an extended process that required a special session to complete for the second year in a row.
The spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 will be nearly $115 billion, less than the Senate’s preferred budget but not the $113.6 billion plan preferred by the House.
Legislators, who have been meeting in a special session, plan to approve the budget Friday and send it to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In healthcare, lawmakers approved additional funding for cancer research and HIV treatment programs to help maintain access to critical care services statewide.
Here’s a look at some of the healthcare-related items:
- Lawmakers will allow Florida State University to use existing funds to pay for the acquisition of Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. FSU agreed to buy the hospital from the city of Tallahassee earlier this year, paying $3.6 million per year for 30 years, and investing $1.7 billion in the same period.
- One point of contention was the Cancer Innovation Fund championed by first lady Casey DeSantis. The Senate preferred $30 million while the House didn’t want to fund the program that seeks to boost cancer research, but the chambers settled on $20 million on Sunday evening.
- Lawmakers provided emergency funding during the regular session to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which faced cuts by the Department of Health amid a shortfall of federal funding. That funding only lasts until June 3. Now, the program that helps HIV patients get needed prescriptions will receive $75 million, as top budget negotiators acknowledged the cuts earlier this year pushed people in the program to get private coverage to get their medications.
- A $50 million fund that was part of a 2024 law championed by Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, who was Senate president at the time, was eliminated in the last round of budget talks. The Health Innovation Council, though, still has funds from the current year to help bring new medical technologies to hospitals.
- The House wanted $250,000 to study the effects of leaving the federal healthcare exchange, where residents can shop for Affordable Care Act plans, but the Senate didn’t agree to it.
- Moffitt Cancer Center is set to receive funding, with $1.5 million allocated for its cancer pathology digitization project, according to the House supplemental spending list.
