Plus, FDA approves cheaper Canadian prescriptions
The Florida Senate is poised to pass a sweeping health care plan to ready the state for its medical future, the FDA allows Florida to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, and the Sunshine State drops again to 31st in national health rankings. It’s all in this week’s Healthcare Digest.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo
Streamlining Healthcare: This past Thursday the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee unanimously passed two bills that together form a wide-ranging new healthcare plan for Florida. These bills now move on to the full Senate for a vote, and if passed, will overhaul our current healthcare system. They will provide incentives for new doctors to stay in the state, low-interest loans for healthcare innovations, and measures to divert non-emergency traffic to urgent-care centers or other federally qualified health centers to ease currently overwhelmed emergency rooms. A report by the Florida Legislature confirmed the need for more physicians in the state to help with the aging population, despite Florida’s 1205% increase in funding for graduate medical education. Keeping the new doctors and physicians in-state and attracting qualified out-of-state and foreign-trained physicians can help alleviate the burden on Florida’s healthcare.
Get It Cheaper Up North: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Florida to directly import prescription drugs from Canada this past Friday. Many of these drugs are available cheaper from our northern neighbor, so Floridians can save money through this new avenue – and the regulator already said it is pursuing similar approvals in other states. It’s the end result of the 2019 Florida Legislature passing HB 19, which established two separate programs to safely import FDA-approved prescription drugs into the state. To secure the approval, the state just needs to prove “the programs would result in significant cost savings to consumers without adding risk of exposure to unsafe or ineffective drugs,” said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf. Many U.S. industry groups have opposed the imports for years, but former President Trump finalized the plan to allow proposals to the FDA in 2020, and the Biden administration subsequently ordered the FDA to begin working with states.
Florida Down in National Health Rankings: The Sunshine State dropped from 27th to 31st in 2023 according to new national health rankings from United Health Foundation. Public health experts have voiced the need for additional funding to help combat the decline, where they have noticed a few concerning trends well beyond the national averages. Most notably perhaps, the state ranks 44th in public health funding and as such, it’s also 43rd in people avoiding medical care mainly due to rising costs. Some 13% of Floridians avoid healthcare due to rising costs – but this is concurrent with alarming rates of chronic health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease (see details on page 11). Some have voiced concerns about Florida opting out of expanding Medicaid – including Alison Yager, the Executive Director of the Florida Health Justice Project – to which Governor DeSantis highlighted the more than $46 billion in healthcare funding for his proposed 2024 Florida budget. We will see if some of these healthcare changes and budget adjustments will help Florida improve in national rankings over the next calendar year.
LMA Newsletter of 1-15-24
