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The 2024 Florida legislative session begins tomorrow, Tuesday, January 9th. During the 60-day session in Tallahassee, state lawmakers will complete a budget and pass legislation. Health care remains a top priority for Floridians, but other important issues will likely dominate the conversation. Here's what we're watching this legislative session:
The Budget
Every year, the Florida Legislature must approve a budget, but the Governor can veto individual items. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the 2023-24 budget into law on June 16, 2023. After vetoeing $511 million, the final budget (the General Appropriations Act) totaled $116.5 billion. This was a 5.9 percent increase over the $110 billion 2022-23 budget. Currently Florida has roughly $15.3 billion, $6.8 billion of which is unallocated general revenue. The state continues to enjoy a surplus due to sales tax revenues but also a massive influx of federal funds, primarily from pandemic relief. Read more on last year's budget from the Florida Policy Institute.
The "Live Healthy" Proposal
This legislative session, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (Naples) has made health care her priority issue. Though she recognizes many of the challenges Floridians face in accessing care, she doesn't see closing the coverage gap as an important part of the solution.
Instead, her plan, the Live Healthy proposal, is primarily concerned with increasing the number of doctors, encouraging technological innovation and boosting medical screenings. The legislative package calls for spending between $750 - $874 million to, among other things:
- Raise Medicaid reimbursement rates ($571.2 million) for home and community-based providers, maternal care in labor and delivery, dental providers, and statutory teaching hospitals that provide residencies in specialized tertiary care.
- Fund a low-interest health care innovation loan program ($75 million) that grants providers, such as rural hospitals and nursing homes, to bring innovation to their facilities, patients and residents.
- Expand loan-repayment assistance for doctors and dentists who remain in the state after graduating ($50 million).
Learn more:
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Live Healthy Explainer Presentation – Watch our December presentation on some of the components of President Passidomo’s Live Healthy proposal. Slides are available here.
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SPB 7016 | SPB 7018 – Read the first two pieces of Live Healthy legislation filed in December.
Other Health Bills
Several health access and health care related bills have already been filed this session. Though many of them won't get a hearing, there are several important policies with the potential to benefit all Floridians. These include:
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HB 273/SB 488: Medicaid Coverage for Prescribed Foods for Disease Treatment and Prevention – Establishes a Food Is Medicine Pilot Program.
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HB 277/SB 140: Medicaid Eligibility for Young Adults – Requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to conduct a study to assess the potential impacts of extending Medicaid coverage to young adults 18 to 26 years of age who are affected by the health insurance coverage gap.
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HB 567/SB 212: Medicaid Buy-in Program for Individuals with Disabilities – Requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to establish and implement a Medicaid buy-in program for individuals with disabilities who are 18 to 64 years of age and whose incomes exceed the maximum income eligibility level for Medicaid.
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HB 309/SB 644: Rural Emergency Hospitals - Provides that facilities that meet an expanded definition of rural emergency hospitals are eligible to apply for license as rural emergency hospitals; authorizes agency to seek federal approval to apply Medicaid reimbursement to licensed rural emergency hospitals.
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HB 363/SB 228: Health Insurance Cost Sharing - Requires specified individual health insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers to apply payments by or on behalf of insureds toward the total contributions of the insureds’ cost-sharing requirements.
Track more health care bills using the FVH 2024 Legislative Session Live Tracker.
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