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Get the latest coverage of the 2024 Florida legislative session in Tallahassee from our coverage partners and WUSF.

Florida Senate committee approves 'game-changing' health care plans

 State Sen. Gayle Harrell
Florida House of Representatives (2017)
Senate Health and Human Appropriations Chair Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, says SPB 7016 is the most innovative way to put Florida "on the map as the No. 1 health care state."

Proposals include expanding residency programs to keep doctors in the state and taking steps to divert nonemergent patients from ERs to other facilities. The legislative session begins Jan. 9.

A state Senate committee Tuesday unanimously approved two high-profile bills that supporters say would help expand access to health care and spur innovation in Florida.

The bills approved by the Health Policy Committee are a top priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, for the 2024 legislative session, which will start Jan. 9.

One of the bills (SPB 7016), carried by Senate Health Policy Chair Colleen Burton, R-Lakeland, would make wide-ranging changes such as expanding residency programs to try to keep doctors in the state and taking steps to divert patients from emergency rooms to other types of facilities for non-emergency conditions.

Senate Health and Human Appropriations Chair Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, called the bill “game-changing.”

The measure also includes such things as making it easier to license foreign-trained physicians and expanding loan-repayment assistance for physicians and dentists who remain in the state to practice.

“This is the most-creative, innovative way to really change Florida and put us on the map as the No. 1 health care state in the country,” Harrell said.

The other bill (SPB 7018), carried by Harrell, would create a Health Care Innovation Council to help oversee a proposed low-interest loan program for innovative projects. The Senate wants to spend $75 million a year on the program over the next decade.

Copyright 2023 Health News Florida

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