April 09, 2019

Bill to cap strong smokable pot heads to House floor

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Despite jeers, boos and shouts of "willful ignorance" from opponents in the crowd, a bill aimed at limiting THC — the naturally occurring element in marijuana that produces a high — is headed to the House floor.

The House Appropriations committee gave the green light to a bill Tuesday that would put a cap on the amount of THC in marijuana flowers at 10 percent, citing research indicating that high-potency marijuana is associated with earlier onset of psychosis and the development of schizophrenia in marijuana users.

Current law places a limit on the amount of THC in edible products only, which may only contain 10 mg of THC per serving and 200 mg in total. The levels are much higher than what most patients would normally consume, according to industry experts.

Despite heated criticism by opponents that the bill is trying to curb the Legislature’s recent repeal of a ban on smoking medical marijuana, committee chair Rep. Ray Rodrigues said the bill is necessary because of the research around harmful effects of high-THC marijuana.

“As a policymaker, our goal is to do no harm and make sure the public policy we are adopting is good for the state of Florida,” the Estero Republican said. “ High THC being smoked is harmful … we will focus on the areas we see harm.”

The bill also prohibits doctors from certifying patients under 18 for marijuana for full-strength marijuana, gives free medical-marijuana identification cards for veterans and provides $350,000 to the Department of Health to implement the bill.

To the disappointment of some veterans and former opioid users who showed up to the committee meeting, an amendment that would define an opioid addiction as a qualifying condition did not pass.

“For many patients, medical cannabis has become an exit drug for their addiction to opiates,” said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, who put forth the amendment. “They have begun taking medical cannabis and it has helped them wean themselves off a more powerful medicine that has the ability to kill them.”

The right to smoke medical marijuana was backed by the Florida Legislature and quietly signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month The bill also establishes a research consortium, allows products like bongs and rolling papers to be purchased and requires a second opinion from a board-certified pediatrician for non-terminal patients under age 18.

Opponents to the bill take issue with the limited dosage, and say it defies the law that was passed last month, will force prices up and will drive patients to the black market to get higher-THC marijuana. 

Smith said for $60 a bag, people will turn to the black market where their marijuana could be unsafe or laced with dangerous chemicals.

"Who is best suited and positioned to decide what the THC content is going to be most effective? It’s not us," he said. "It should be the doctor."

A veteran and cancer survivor named "Morgan" said for his condition, low THC cannabis is "not worth smoking."

“This 10 percent cap is nonsense ... No cap should be allowed,” Morgan said. “I need a high THC dose. Being a cancer survivor, having no thyroid … I need high doses of THC to get in my blood system to make sure I’m medicated.”

Josephine Cannella-Krehl, a clinical social worker and marijuana advocate, asked that committee members consider Cathy Jordan, the ALS patient who has become the face of the movement to lift a ban on smokable medical marijuana. Jordan smokes marijuana every day to treat her illness, which has kept her living decades beyond her initial life expectancy. Her cannabis strain tests well above 10 percent THC, Krehl said. 

"This bill is a death sentence for Cathy Jordan and patients just like her," she said. 

October 17, 2018

South Florida Democrats are betting that healthcare is their winning issue

Budget Health Care

@alextdaugherty

Miami-Dade County is home to the largest concentration of Obamacare recipients in the country, and Democrats are spending millions on TV ads, certain that healthcare is the No. 1 issue voters care about this year.

Congress’ attempt to repeal Obamacare during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency was one of the highest-profile votes that incumbent Republican Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Mario Diaz-Balart had to take. They both voted to repeal Obamacare in two majority-Latino districts that have nearly 200,000 Obamacare recipients between them.

Now Democrats are convinced that reminding voters of their representatives’ attempts to repeal Obamacare is the way to flip as many as three GOP-held seats in November, along with keeping incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in office.

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is spending nearly $1 million a week on ads related to healthcare in her race against Curbelo.

Donna Shalala has touted her experience running the Department of Health and Human Services under former President Bill Clinton and tried to paint her Republican opponent Maria Elvira Salazar as a “cheerleader of Trump” and his policy preferences like repealing Obamacare. Salazar has said she would have voted against the Obamacare repeal bill with Democrats, but expressed support for allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines, an idea that Shalala said was silly.

And Mary Barzee Flores, a Democrat running against Diaz-Balart, focused on healthcare in her first television ad, noting that her father passed away when she was young.

Read more here.

May 04, 2018

One year ago Carlos Curbelo tried to repeal Obamacare. Democrats aren't forgetting

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@alextdaugherty @newsbysmiley

On the House floor one year ago, Democrats were jubilant in defeat.

Republicans had just passed a bill to repeal major portions of Obamacare without any Democratic support, and the minority party was convinced the vote would send them into the majority by January 2019.

"Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, hey, goodbye,” Democrats sang, repeating a juvenile political spectacle first used by Republicans in 1993 when Democrats passed a Bill Clinton-sponsored tax bill.

Despite the theatrics, the Republicans' political prognostications in 1993 were right. They gained 54 seats and control of Congress.

Now, Democrats are trying to use healthcare to engineer a similar wave, and Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo's Miami-to-Key-West district is ground zero for their efforts. Curbelo won reelection in 2016 by 12 percentage points despite representing a Democratic-leaning district that voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by 16 percentage points, and his seat is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to win 24 seats to gain control of the House after the November elections.

On the one year anniversary of the House vote to pass the American Health Care Act, known as the AHCA, Democrats are spending millions to remind voters in districts like Curbelo's that their representative voted to essentially repeal Obamacare, the sweeping healthcare law passed solely by Democrats in 2009. Democrats are so confident that Curbelo's healthcare record will be his political undoing that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi traveled to South Miami-Dade on Thursday to appear with his Democratic opponent and trash his record.

"Today we’re talking about the one-year anniversary of a very destructive bill that the congressman from this area, Mr. Curbelo, voted for to the detriment of people in this district,” Pelosi said, adding that Curbelo's support for the GOP tax bill that became law late last year further eroded affordable healthcare by removing penalties for the individual mandate. “What they couldn’t achieve in the president’s [healthcare] bill, they tried to do some of in the tax bill. So elections have consequences. Legislation affects peoples’ lives. We’re just trying to show the connection."

Curbelo welcomes the attention on healthcare, and says his position on Obamacare hasn't changed since he first ran for Congress in 2013.

"We need to keep the good in the law. That means protections for those with preexisting conditions, doesn’t discriminate against women, and allow young people to stay on their parent's plans until they are established and can purchase their own health insurance," Curbelo said. "And we need to replace the bad with something that works better. A year later I still get some complaints in my office about" Obamacare.

Read more here.

October 13, 2017

Miami Republican attacks Trump’s decision to end Obamacare payments

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

@alextdaugherty 

Miami Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to end cost-sharing reduction payments intended to help low-income Americans afford health insurance.

Ros-Lehtinen, a frequent critic of Trump who is retiring in 2018, said late Thursday night on Twitter that “cutting health care subsidies will mean more uninsured in my district.”

“POTUS promised more access, affordable coverage,” Ros-Lehtinen tweeted. “This does opposite.”

The Trump administration said Thursday night that it will stop making payments to health insurers that participate in Obamacare. Trump continued to make the subsidy payments through the summer as he publicly pressured Congress to repeal the 2010 law.
 
“The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system,” the White House said in a statement. “Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people.”

Ros-Lehtinen’s Miami-based district has 96,300 people enrolled in Obamacare, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the highest number of enrollments of any congressional district in the country.

Another Miami Republican, Rep. Carlos Curbelo, tweeted on Friday morning that Congress should continue funding the subsides through the federal funding process.

“Cost sharing reductions are critical to low income Americans,” Curbelo tweeted. “Congress should guarantee their funding through the appropriations process.”

Curbelo’s district has 92,500 people enrolled in Obamacare.

Read more here.

September 20, 2017

Rubio appears likely to support last-ditch Obamacare repeal effort

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@alextdaugherty 

Marco Rubio indicated tentative support for the latest attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare in the Senate, eight weeks after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to act on the party’s signature campaign promise.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., are the architects of a bill that replaces the Affordable Care Act with a system of block grants doled out to state governments. They introduced the bill in July as the Senate debated a separate Obamacare repeal measure, but their plan has gained momentum in recent days.

“I’ve got to see some of the details on how it impacts Florida, but by and large returning power to the states is something I’ve long believed in,” Rubio said to reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think you can design a one-size-fits-all system on virtually anything for a country this size.”

 

The Graham-Cassidy plan is not expected to garner any Democratic support and Rubio, a Republican who has opposed Obamacare since entering the Senate in 2011, has voted in favor of past efforts to repeal Obamacare.

Republicans have just 10 days to pass the Graham-Cassidy proposal with a simple majority of 50 senators in support plus Vice President Mike Pence’s vote. After Sept. 30, Senate rules will require 60 votes to pass the proposal, which means it won’t pass because Republicans only control 52 seats. 

President Donald Trump and Pence are supportive. Pence was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to woo Republicans on Graham-Cassidy.

 

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson announced in July that he was working with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine on a bipartisan health care proposal, and Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander was working with Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray on a health care plan. But the latest effort by Graham and Cassidy has stalled any talks between Democrats and Republicans.

Rubio has said for weeks that bipartisan talks on health care are a waste of time, and he reiterated that stance on Tuesday.

“There’s no realistic chance of a bipartisan solution,” Rubio said. “Ideally you’d be able to fix this in a bipartisan way but there’s a massive difference of opinion on the federal government’s role on health care.”

Read more here.

July 31, 2017

Carlos Curbelo wanted to repeal Obamacare. Now he wants to work with Democrats.

Carlos Curbelo 3

@alextdaugherty

Last week, Carlos Curbelo ventured across the Capitol to see his hero, Arizona Sen. John McCain, speak about the need for compromise in Congress.

The moderate from Miami listened intently as the maverick from Arizona. who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, chided colleagues from both parties on the Senate floor about the dangers of naked partisanship.

“Just had the special privilege of being in the Senate Chamber to welcome John McCain back to D.C.,” Curbelo tweeted. “He's a national hero & one of my heroes.”

But less than 72 hours later, McCain cast the crucial vote against a narrowly tailored Obamacare repeal bill — a vote that will likely give headaches to moderate House Republicans like Curbelo ahead of the 2018 elections.

Curbelo and others like him took a politically tough House vote in May to replace Obamacare. But that bill is now dead. The political ads are yet to come.

In the wake of the legislative failure, Curbelo, whose Miami-to-Key West district is the most Democratic-leaning in the country currently held by a Republican, is now talking bipartisanship.

“It's critical to our democracy for Members of Congress to put politics aside and come together to find solutions to the issues affecting our constituents,” Curbelo, who declined an interview request, said in a statement. “Our healthcare system needs reform and I've been committed to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find market-based solutions that would result in increased coverage and lower costs.”

Curbelo is part of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 43 House Republicans and Democrats who released a bipartisan health care plan on Monday.

Among other things, the plan calls for creating a stability fund that states can use to reduce health insurance premiums, requiring that businesses with more than 500 employees provide health insurance — instead of the current 50 employees — repealing the medical device tax and providing guidelines for states that want flexibility in the existing exchanges.

But hours before McCain’s vote, Curbelo said he was ready to proceed with the repeal of Obamacare if the Senate passed it.

Most Republican senators did not support the so-called “skinny repeal.” They viewed it as a way to start negotiations between House and Senate leaders to come up with a better plan.

Curbelo was unconvinced that any more negotiations among Republicans would work, and was ready to vote for a scaled-down repeal of Obamacare that pleased few within the GOP.

Though Curbelo doesn’t have any legislative victories to show for his Obamacare vote, the Republican Party is ready to support a potentially vulnerable incumbent who voted in favor of one of the party’s biggest priorities.

“For Curbelo’s part, he has always been consistent in his messaging for healthcare,” said National Republican Campaign Committee spokeswoman Maddie Anderson. “His vote in the House was a way to keep the debate and the conversation going forward. He was aware that he thought it needed work.”

Obamacare figures to be a huge campaign issue in 2018 for Curbelo and whoever challenges him for his seat, as 92,500 people in his district are enrolled in Obamacare, the second-highest figure for any congressional district in the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Read more here.

July 25, 2017

Marco Rubio votes to proceed with debate on Obamacare repeal

Marco Rubio

@alextdaugherty 

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio joined 49 Republicans to vote in favor of proceeding with Senate debate on an Obamacare repeal bill, a critical step in the effort by Republicans to repeal Obamacare.

Rubio had been expected to vote in favor. He announced on July 13 that his concerns with the repeal process had been addressed by Senate leadership.

“The sooner we get to the floor and start the debate on the floor in front of the American people, the better off it’s going to be for everyone,” Rubio said on July 13.

Two moderate Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against proceeding with debate, meaning Rubio’s vote was essential in passing the measure. Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie in favor of proceeding with debate on repeal.

The 51-50 vote means that the Senate will now begin debate on a proposal to repeal Obamacare, although it is not clear what specific bill the Republicans decide to move forward on. It is expected that a bill that repeals Obamacare without a replacement and a bill that keeps portions of Obamacare will be debated, but if the various proposals increase the federal deficit after 10 years, a process typically determined by the Congressional Budget Office, at least 60 senators must vote in favor.

But the Senate can pass a bill with a simple majority instead of 60 votes if the Senate cobbles together a plan with elements that do not increase the deficit after 10 years, something dubbed a “skinny repeal” plan. Republicans only have 52 Senate seats compared to Democrats’ 48, so a bill that requires 60 votes would fail.

Rubio said two weeks ago that he wanted to ensure more Medicaid payments to Florida hospitals that serve a large number of low-income people, an option to choose catastrophic coverage plans with low monthly payments but high deductibles, and flexible Medicaid caps for public-health emergencies like Zika.

After a closed-door meeting with Republican leadership on July 13 Rubio emerged to say he would vote in favor of debate on a repeal bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ended months of behind-the-scenes negotiations and deal-making efforts by putting the motion on the floor Tuesday, forcing Republican senators like Rubio to either vote in favor of debating a repeal package or turn their backs on a long-running campaign promise for many Republicans.

Rubio has repeatedly said that he was elected in 2010 and reelected in 2016 on a platform of repealing Obamacare, and that he intends to follow through on his campaign promise.

Read more here. 

July 14, 2017

Bill Nelson on Obamacare repeal: It's on the ropes, 'the message has gotten through'

Bill Nelson 71417U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was approaching the dugout at Tropicana Field to throw out the first pitch at the Tampa Bay Rays game against the Red Sox on July 7, when a woman shouted his name.

"She came down the aisle to tell me: Please don't let them take my health care away," Nelson recalled. "I hear that all the time. People come up to me on the airplane, street corners, public buildings, ballgames -- where ever I am. Some people have told me 'I would be dead without my healthcare.'''

Because of that, Nelson said, he predicts that the revised Senate healthcare bill, which was released on Thursday, is all but dead and repeal of Obamacare is on the ropes.

"I think the message has gotten through,'' Nelson said Friday after a series of constituent meetings at his Tallahassee office. "I think it's going to be hard for them."

Even Gov. Rick Scott, a long-time advocate of repealing Obamacare, said in an op-ed released Friday that smaller changes should be on the table even though he still says "Obamacare must be repealed immediately." 

"D.C. politicians have focused only on the grand bargain of repealing and replacing Obamacare, ignoring the opportunity to make incremental changes to get rid of the taxes and mandates and roll back the federal welfare state,'' Scott wrote. 

Nelson believes that Florida has put itself in a bind by refusing to expand Medicaid to 138 percent of poverty, which he says is about $45,000 for a family of four.

"Now the states like Florida are saying we want you to make us equal with all 31 states that have expanded Medicaid, including states that have Republican governors,'' he said. "This is not only the irony but the travesty of the situation."

Under Obamacare, Florida could have drawn $5 billion a year in federal funds and would have had to match a maximum of $500 million a year to cover an estimated 800,000 uninsured, he said.

Instead, Florida has persuaded the Trump administration to expand the Low Income Pool program and reimburse hospitals and health care about $1 billion over the next two years  to compensate for the care for the uninsured. But to get that money, local governments must pay a 40 percent match for 60 percent of the federal funds.

"So the people of Florida are going to pay $400 million to get $600 million when in fact, if they had expanded Medicaid, they would have paid a maximum of $500 million to get $5 billion," he said.

"They are paying more for it out of the pockets of the taxpayers of Florida and now when the health care bill revision is up, they say they want extra compensation so that the state's that expanded Medicaid don't get ahead of us. It's backwards."

July 13, 2017

Rubio will vote yes on motion to proceed with Obamacare repeal bill

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@alextdaugherty 

Sen. Marco Rubio will vote yes on a motion to proceed with the second draft of the Senate's Obamacare repeal bill. 

The bill, released on Thursday, was satisfactory to Rubio after he tweeted three provisions as conditions for his support on Wednesday night.

The provisions included more Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve a large number of low-income people, an option to choose catastrophic coverage plans with low monthly payments but high deductibles and flexible Medicaid caps for public health emergencies like Zika.

Rubio said that despite his support on the motion to proceed with the bill, he will introduce an amendment that ensures Florida, which chose not to expand Medicaid, isn't locked into a baseline "that puts us at a disadvantageous position." 

"It depends what the final bill looks like, if Florida's not treated fairly it'll be a problem," Rubio said. "But ultimately, I campaigned to repeal and replace Obamacare and that's what I want to but I want to do it in a way that's positive for the country and fair for Florida." 

Even though Rubio is in favor of proceeding with the bill, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican and conservative Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul both said Thursday they are not in favor of proceeding with the bill. A number of other Republican senators said they are undecided. 

"We have at least 51 insurance markets in the country, we don't have one, so everybody's approaching it from the perspective of their own state," Rubio said.  

The bill can still be changed if the motion to proceed passes with additional amendments. 

July 06, 2017

Health care protest at Marco Rubio's Doral office set for this afternoon

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@alextdaugherty 

Sen. Marco Rubio is facing heat throughout Florida over a Senate proposal to repeal Obamacare. 

A slew of liberal groups are organizing protests at Rubio offices across the state, including his South Florida office in Doral. The protest begins at 2pm Thursday.

"Republicans are trying to pass their terrible health care bill, which is estimated to cost twenty-two MILLION Americans their health insurance," the protest's Facebook page reads. "Let's show Office of US Senator Marco Rubio that the constituents of Florida know health care is a fundamental human RIGHT, not a privilege." 

The groups involved in today's protest includes the Bernie Sanders-linked Our Revolution, #AllofUs, Democracy Spring, Democratic Socialists of America, The People's Consortium, Progressive Democrats of America, ResistHere.org, Ultraviolet, and Working Families Party. Protests are also planned for Palm Beach Gardens, Tallahassee and Jacksonville. 

"We’re frustrated with the health care bill," said Kira Willig, a leader with the Our Revolution affiliated People's Progressive Caucus of Miami-Dade. "It’s not a health care bill it’s a tax bill." 

Willig said she's expecting arrests at this afternoon's protest.

Rubio is noncommittal over the current proposal in the Senate that's been panned by both moderates and conservatives, although he is committed to repealing Obamacare. 

“I ran for election and reelection as an opponent of Obamacare,” Rubio said last week. “I don’t think I’ve ever misled people about my views on it. I’m in favor of repealing it, we’re just debating how to do it.”

Rubio won't be at any of his offices this afternoon. He's scheduled to meet Vice President Mike Pence at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral along with Sen. Bill Nelson