Christine Jordan Sexton
The House and Senate could be moving closer to agreement on a health care bill.
The House Health Care Services Committee on Thursday tagged a strike-all amendment onto its direct primary care proposal, HB 7047, to include “medical tourism.”
The move makes the bill near identical to a proposed committee bill that the Senate Health Policy Committee Chairman Sen. Aaron Bean unveiled at a committee meeting this week, SB 7084, except for a provision in the Senate bill that includes sovereign immunity at free clinics.
While the bill moved through the committee with ease Rep. Gayle Harrell expressed concerns that the committee was including the medical tourism provision in the bill, also the subject of a freestanding bill HB 945, which has not been heard in committee.
Harrell said it’s “a little disconcerting when we combine bills” at the last committee stop. She also noted that the Enterprise Florida, which would be charged with the medial tourism provision in the bill, was not at the committee to testify.
The bill allows individuals and employers to enter into direct primary care contracts with doctors without running afoul of state insurance laws. The arrangements allow doctors to charges a set fee in exchange for primary care services.
Rep. Mia Jones voted against the bill because she had concerns that Floridians may not understand that the direct primary care arrangement doesn’t meet the individual mandate requirement under the federal health care law unless individuals also purchase a wrap-around catastrophic insurance policy.
