House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Sentate President Andy Gardiner formally called the legislature into a special session to begin June 1. The special session might last until June 20, or such earlier time as the legislature may accomplish their constitutionally required objective of passing a budget. The special session became necessary when lawmakers could not […]
Implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act has quickly shaped up to be perhaps the highest profile and most hotly debated issue of the 2013 legislative session. Governor Rick Scott surprised many when he announced shortly before the session that he supports expanding Medicaid to comply with the Affordable Care Act. Several Republican policymakers promptly […]
The New Year’s celebrations are over and it’s back to work in Tallahassee. Before the annual legislative session begins in March, the Florida Legislature will hold a series of committee weeks to continue considering proposals for 2013. The insurance-related issues under consideration will range from health insurance to property insurance to workers’ compensation. The following […]
By some standards, there were fewer blockbuster issues in the Florida insurance market in 2012 than in some prior years. After all, this was not a year in which the legislature needed to tackle workers’ compensation or medical malpractice reform, and efforts at bad faith reform stalled fairly early in the legislative session. Florida thankfully […]
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announced over the holidays that his staff will be reviewing the legality of the federal health-care bill. McCollum, who is running for Governor, refers to the much-debated health-care bill as a “tax on living.” He questions a requirement in the bill that all citizens either obtain insurance or pay into […]