Jacob Ogles
Lawyers have been trying to improve health care access with little success. Now Charlie Lynch says a professional in the field needs to get involved.
“I don’t want business as usual when it comes to reforming or changing health care,” Lynch said. That means the Florida Legislature needs some new faces.
“They are attorneys and they don’t live in the health care world.”
A longtime consultant for pharmaceutical companies, Lynch just launched a campaign for the Florida House in an open District 78 seat.
Lynch said he thinks market solutions can provide the answers to broadening access to care. While working at the Yale-New Haven Health Care system, Lynch said he brought 11 pharmaceutical companies together to try and standardize criteria for treating chronic conditions.
Through all his work, Lynch said patient access remained his chief priority, and the same would go for service in Florida’s House of Representatives.
Asked about Medicaid expansion, Lynch turned to federal policy and suggested it would be wise to lower eligibility requirements for Medicare to age 62. As for questions like whether a Medicaid expansion in Florida should take place, he said he would need to do more research.
Lynch did not limit his platform to health care issues. The Fort Myers professional said he’s also concerned about Southwest Florida’s industry.
“We have five colleges and no real industry,” he said. “We’re a huge growing community that tends to be residential, and we need more business.”
That will only grow as Florida’s population becomes younger and state leaders aim to make sure talent in colleges doesn’t leave the state to fund work.
A positive tax environment with no income tax will be key in attracting business, and Lynch promised to fight efforts to create new taxes. He also wants to see efforts to boost the growth of clean energy and other environmentally focused businesses.
“More Republicans realize the need to balance our environmental laws to keep Florida a pristine state and keep the Everglades great,” Lynch said, “but not throw a carbon tax up that will hit everybody.”
He also said Florida must be stricter in enforcing the law. He noted a Fort Myers police officer was killed in 2018, allegedly by a suspect with 19 previous convictions and a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the News-Press.
“We need to be tougher with our laws,” he said. “Florida has a real problem with criminals.”
Lynch faces Republicans Jenna Persons and Roger Lolly in the GOP primary.
One comment
Nutrindo Ideias
January 6, 2020 at 1:00 am
I agree with this. This kind of discussion about health is really important.
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