Phil Ammann
Three Tampa Bay municipal leaders will join a coalition of businesses next week to discuss strategies for extending health-care coverage for uninsured Floridians.
“Cover the Bay” 2015 Bay Area Mayors Conference is January 28 and features A Healthy Florida Works along with Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, and Clearwater Mayor George Cretekos. The event is scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg.
With Florida having one of the highest rates of uninsured individuals in the nation, nearly 23 percent of Hillsborough County residents are uninsured while 22 percent of Pinellas County residents are living and working without health-care insurance.
Bay Area mayors, business leaders and health-care industry reps will take part in an in-depth policy discussion on extending health-care coverage to nearly one million uninsured working Floridians.
Also up for discussion is how expanded coverage will benefit local communities, businesses, and the economy.
Health-care policy leader Jason Altmire, a former U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania and current senior vice president of public policy, government and community affairs at Florida Blue, will provide the keynote address.
Tampa Bay Business Journal Editor Alexis Muellner will also moderate a panel discussion with:
- Jamie Harden, president and CEO, Creative Sign Designs and Creative Mailbox & Sign Designs; member, Executive Committee, Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
- Bruce Rueben, president, Florida Hospital Association
- Lou Ann Watson, director of financial assistance, BayCare Health System
- Jay Wolfson, distinguished service professor public health, medicine and pharmacy and associate vice president health law, policy and safety, University of South Florida
- Anne Drake McMullen, executive vice president of business development, Doyle Wealth Management, Inc.; vice chair and membership chair, St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
“Cover the Bay” co-hosts include the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce, Tampa Bay Partnership, BayCare Health System, Bayfront Health, Florida Hospital, All Children’s Hospital, Tampa General Hospital and Moffitt Cancer Center. Other presenters are Windmoor Healthcare of Clearwater, Kindred Hospital Bay Area St. Petersburg, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Community Health Systems and the Tampa Bay Healthcare Collaborative.
A Healthy Florida Works is a coalition of nearly 700 business and more than 100,000 individual members who call on Florida to use available federal funding to extend health-care coverage to the uninsured.
Grounded in free-market principles, A Healthy Florida Works Plan would utilize private providers to create a system that gives health-care coverage choices to more than 114,500 low-income, working Bay Area residents. The proposal encourages personal responsibility through premium payments and job and education training.
The group believes its plan is a fiscally responsible approach, with state dollars and money sent to Washington, D.C., coming back to Florida.
More information about A Healthy Florida Works and the A Healthy Florida Works Plan is at www.ahealthyfloridaworks.com.
