Florida House Representative Gallop Franklin (D) hosted a roundtable discussion with more than two dozen healthcare representatives at the Apalachee Center Monday, discussing ways to improve the healthcare system amid potential cuts to federal funding.
Florida House Representative Gallop Franklin organized the discussion to get input from healthcare stakeholders to bring into the next legislative session. According to the press release for the event, state economic forecasters project a “$2.8 billion budget shortfall” by the 2026 fiscal year. Watch the video to hear their key concerns.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Dozens of doctors, healthcare leaders, and state representatives gathered at the Apalachee Center Monday for a round table discussion.
Organized by Florida House Representative Gallop Franklin (D), the focus is improving the state of healthcare in our state amid uncertainty in federal funding.
“My goal is to bring about all this information to say, Hey guys, guess what? We traveled the state. This is the information that we have, and let’s try to tackle some of these challenges facing our communities, he said.
In a press release for the round table, it says the states economic forecasters predict a $2.8 billion budget loss by next year.
TMH Chief Medical Officer Andrea Friall says round tables like this can help to figure out what really needs to be done at the local level.
It’s easy to say everybody needs health care and we don’t have enough health care, but do you really know? Have you walked into an emergency room lately? Have you tried to get a primary care appointment?” Friall said.
She tells me cuts to Medicaid could impact care at her office and wants to see improvements to Medicaid reimbursements.
“Cutting that disincentivizes physicians to want to take care of those patients, but not because they don’t want to take care of the patient. They can’t afford to take care of the patients, she said.
The group also talked about ways to increase access to rural communities while also increasing access to specialists within the city for same-day service.
Apalachee Center CEO Jay Reeve says he plans to include some of these ideas in his practice, like fusing mental health and primary healthcare.
What I learned today was that we hadn’t done specific targeted outreach to some of the local health care providers and health care organizations, so we’re going to start doing that, Reeve said.
Representative Franklin says the next step is to bring these ideas back next legislative session.
Representative Franklin tells ABC 27s Brieanna Smith the biggest challenge will be looking a Medicaid reimbursement rates next session with a limited state budget and potential cuts on the federal level.
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