A 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 Senate 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 Chairwoman 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.
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Senate Health and Human Appropriations Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, called the bill “game-changing.”
It 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 number-one 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.
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