© 2024 WFSU Public Media
WFSU News · Tallahassee · Panama City · Thomasville
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Florida Lawmakers Support Direct Healthcare Model

Florida Channel

Florida lawmakers are seeking a new healthcare option. A direct model could change the way doctors treat their patients.

Direct primary care allows patients to pay doctors up front for services, making it more cost-effective than health insurance. The Florida House Health and Human Services Committee has passed legislation separating direct care from the Florida Insurance Code. Sal Nuzzo of the James Madison Institute says it’s legal under the Affordable Care Act. And Nuzzo believes it could provide an option for uninsured Floridians.

“This. This is what you do. This is an advancement to promote positive market-based policies that will, in fact, lower the cost of access to healthcare,” Nuzzo says.

Direct primary care is not insurance. But, Chris Nuland of the American College of Physicians Florida Chapter says this healthcare model presents a solution for people who struggle with health coverage. 

“This is not the panacea. But what it does do is aim at the gap that some people have. They make too much for Medicaid, they’re the working poor, their employers can’t give them the full coverage, but they are willing to give them primary care coverage with a specific doctor.”

This healthcare model is gaining traction around the country. But many providers are trying to figure out how to make direct pay fit within the current insurance structure.

Ashley Tressel is a senior Communication and English student at Florida State University. Before WFSU, she interned at the Executive Office of the Governor and The Borgen Project, a national nonprofit for global poverty. She also wrote freelance for Carbonated.tv, a multimedia news site and served as managing editor for the FSU International Programs magazine, Nomadic Noles, in Valencia, Spain. After graduation, Ashley plans to embark on her journalism career somewhere in Colorado.