2013 Legislative Session
Update
Week Three
Affordable Care Act | Biomedical Research Funding | Cancer Care & Research | Clean Indoor Air Act | Cigarette Surcharge | Epinephrine Auto-injectors | Tobacco Education & Use Prevention | Tobacco Settlement
The legislature was extremely busy during its third
week, as the House subcommittee process winds down and hundreds of bills await committee
hearings. This pressure is condensed due to the upcoming Passover and Easter
holidays, resulting in a shorter week next week, followed by the session’s
half-way point. The legislature made progress on several policy fronts,
including proposals to repeal Internet cafes, compromises on Everglades
Restoration legislation, a Senate proposal to provide coverage to the working
poor pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, compromise legislation on the “eye
ball wars” involving the scope of practice fight between the ophthalmologists and
the optometrists, and the release of budget allocations.
Following is a summary of the priority issues for the
American Lung Association in Florida:
Affordable Care Act
Implementation
Senate committee approves “third option”
One
of the largest policy debates in decades involves Governor Rick Scott and
legislative leaders deciding how Florida will implement the federal Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The major PPACA-related policy
issue to be decided is whether or not the state will expand Medicaid coverage
to people living in households earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty
level (about $16,000 for an individual and $27,000 for a family of three).
The
House Select Committee on PPACA voted to reject Medicaid expansion as did the
Senate Select Committee on PPACA –who instead pursued a third option. This week Senator Joe Negron (R- Palm City) spelled
out his “Healthy Florida” proposal before the Senate Appropriations Committee,
which he chairs. His proposal would
amend the Florida Kid Care Act of 1998 to provide coverage to people with an
income of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Chair Negron’s goal
is to take advantage of the funds available through PPACA, but to provide the
opportunity for coverage of Florida’s uninsured on a different platform. Several of the other options being discussed rely
on less federal involvement for covering the uninsured poor, but none have
received a public vetting in a meaningful way.
An
estimated 365,164 uninsured adults in Florida have chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma. Many of these patients will be eligible for
expanded coverage in 2014 if Florida extends health care coverage under the
Affordable Care Act.
The American Lung
Association in Florida supports expanding access to health care services for
these vulnerable Floridians.
Click
here to thank the Senate Appropriations committee for voting to expand health
care coverage to our working but low income residents.
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Epinephrine Auto-injectors SB 284/ HB 366
Provision amended to Senate and House school safety bills
this week
SB 284 by Senator Joe Negron
(R-Palm City) establishes a process through which a private school can
register to be notified at the same time as public school districts about an
emergency occurrence in the local area which could threaten student safety. This
week, in the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs, Space & Domestic
Security Committee, Senator Negron’s bill was amended to allow schools to maintain a supply
of epinephrine auto-injectors for school personnel to administer to a child in
emergencies. The amended bill passed as a committee substitute by a vote of 7
to 0 and will be heard by the full Senate on March 27. The companion bill, HB 369 by Representative Mike LaRosa
(R-St. Cloud) passed the House Local and Federal Affairs Committee on March 22
with the EpiPen amendment.
The American Lung
Association in Florida supports these amended bills because they could provide
life saving treatment for students experiencing threatening deadly allergic
reactions.
Click here to thank
Senator Negron and Representative LaRosa for allowing the amendments.
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Florida Clean
Indoor Air Act: SB 258 / HB 439
No movement this week
SB 258 by Senator Rob Bradley (R-Orange Park) and HB 439 by Representative Bill Hagar (R-Boca Raton) amend the Florida
Clean Indoor Air Act to allow cities and counties to restrict outdoor smoking
on municipal and county property.
SB 258 was amended to limit where non-smoking areas
can be placed and requires the designation of a smoking area within those
non-smoking areas. The restricted areas, as well as designated smoking areas,
must be identified by signs. The bill also provides for enforcement.
There was no committee action this
week on SB 258. The bill will be heard next by the Community Affairs Committee.
HB 439 has not been scheduled for hearing yet in its first committee of
reference, the Health Quality Subcommittee.
The American Lung Association in Florida
raised concerns that the newly-amended proposal is not strong enough to protect
public health.
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Statewide Tobacco Education and Use
Prevention Program
Budget
allocations released this week
This
week, Senate President Don Gaetz (R-Destin) and House Speaker Will Weatherford (R-Wesley
Chapel) released their respective Chambers’ budget allocations. These
allocations allow the Senate and House leadership to divide up the amount of funding
between the various parts of the budget, such as health care, education,
transportation and criminal justice, according to their funding priorities.
Since
the funding allocations were released, the budget subcommittees began holding preliminary
meetings. On March 19, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health &
Human Services held preliminary review and discussion of the budget issues
related to the various agencies under their purview, including the Agency for Health
Care Administration, Department of Children and Family Services, and the Department
of Health. The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee cancelled their
meeting this week. With respect to the House and Senate Health & Human Services
General Revenue allocations, the Senate allocation of $7,745.8 billion is substantially less than the House allocation
of $7,820.10 billion, a difference of
approximately $743 million. The House’s allocation also removes $382.7 million from the Tobacco
Settlement Trust Fund and another $75.3 million from other health care-related
trust funds.
Both
the House and Senate allocations include an additional $1.1 billion and do not
currently include the billions of dollars available from state trust funds.
The American Lung Association in Florida is
working to ensure the allocation of these dollars follows CDC’s Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control, are competitively
procured, and rigorous performance measures are included in any contracts
managed by the Florida Department of Health.
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Biomedical Research
Funding
Budget allocations
released this week
The
released budget allocations also did not contain specifics on the breakdown of
Biomedical Research funding, however, the Senate plans on holding in-depth
appropriations committee meetings on this issue next week prior to the
religious holiday break.
During
the 2012 Legislative Session, the Legislature appropriated $18 million for
biomedical research. From these funds, the Legislature carved out $2.5 million
in nonrecurring general revenue (GR) funds and $5 million in recurring funds
from the Biomedical Research Trust Fund to both Shands Cancer Hospital and the
Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami. They also provided $3
million in GR funds to the Department of Health and the Sanford-Burnham Medical
Research Institute to work in conjunction to establish activities and grant
opportunities in relation to biomedical research.
In
his 2013 budget recommendations, Governor Scott proposed restoring funding to
the Florida Biomedical Research Grant programs by eliminating these direct
appropriations to specific institutions and using that money to fund the
peer-reviewed competitive grants of the King and Bankhead-Coley programs at $15
million each. The Governor also proposed modifying the programs slightly to
more tightly focus on particular cancers that affect Floridians, as recommended
by the Cancer Control and Research Advisory Board (C-CRAB) and the Biomedical
Research Council (BRAC), and would set goals and metrics for both the Board and
the Council to monitor. He would also promote closer collaboration among
research institutions.
The American Lung
Association in Florida supports a comprehensive, independent peer review
process to determine the recipients of research dollars.
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No movement this week
Current law imposes a surcharge of $1 per pack on
standard sized cigarettes. SB 620 by Senator Jeremy
Ring (D-Margate) and HB 473 by
Representative James Waldman (D-Coconut Creek) create the “Youth Smoking
Prevention Act” and increase the surcharge on standard sized
cigarettes from $1 to $2 per pack, with non-standard sized cigarettes being
taxed proportionately.
There was no committee action this week on SB 620
or HB 473.
The American Lung Association in Florida supports
increasing the cost of cigarettes as a strategy to reduce youth smoking and
encourage people who smoke to quit.
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Tobacco Settlement — Nonsettling
Manufacturers: SB 252
SB 252, re-filed by Senator Thad Altman
(R-Melbourne), requires
more cigarette makers to pay the state as part of its settlement with tobacco
companies, a measure that has been unsuccessfully pushed for several years. The
interest earned from the settlement fund would provide health care to children and seniors. Supporters of the bill include RJ Reynolds
Tobacco Company and the Altria Group.
No action on this bill this week and still no House
companion has been filed.
The American Lung Association in Florida is
monitoring this bill.
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Quality
Cancer Care & Research: SB 1660
Senate bill clears another hurdle this week
SB 1660 by Senator Anitere
Flores (R-Miami) was passed with a strike-all amendment by the Senate’s
Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee this week. The revised bill establishes
a Cancer Center of Excellence Award to recognize hospitals, treatment centers
and other providers in Florida that demonstrate excellence in patient-centered,
coordinated care for persons undergoing cancer treatment and therapy. This bill
also provides for endowments to cancer research institutions in the state to
establish a funded research chair that could attract and retain a promising
researcher. The endowments are contingent upon funding in the General
Appropriations Act. A hearing in the Appropriations Committee will be the
bill’s next stop. A House companion bill addressing
this issue still has not surfaced.
The American Lung Association in Florida is
monitoring this bill and any potential House committee proposal.
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We hope this brief legislative update is helpful. We will keep you posted on these and other developments as the 2013 Session progresses.
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