Bill to bar discrimination against healthcare providers on religious, moral objections passes committee
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – Legislation prohibiting discrimination against a healthcare provider based upon their asserted “conscience-based” objections passed its final House committee Monday.
The legislation would allow healthcare providers and payers the ability to opt out of “participation in or payment for certain health care services by conscience-based objections.”
A healthcare payer is defined in the bill as an entity or service that pays for or arranges for the payment of any health care service, such as a health insurer.
The bill’s text defines a conscience-based objection as “an objection based on a sincerely held religious, moral, or ethical belief.”
The proposed legislation requires health care providers notify patients when a health care provider refuses to perform a requested service.
Bill sponsor, Rep. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, asserted that the bill protects both “the rights of medical conscience as well as the right to freedom of speech.”
Rudman spoke about his own experience expressing divergent pandemic healthcare opinions as a physician in the state of Florida.
“I was one of those doctors that was almost run out of the state of Florida. Not for anything I prescribed, not for anything that I recommended to a patient, but for something that I posted on social media about how I disagreed with what Tony Fauci was doing to this country,” Rudman said. “You’re looking at a physician who was almost put out of business.”
Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, called the bill “discriminatory” and questioned the effect it may have on Florida’s healthcare system in her remarks opposing the bill’s passage.
“I don’t understand how this is beneficial for Floridians when we continuously say we have a shortage of medical providers,” Gantt added.
Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, who is also a doctor, defended the bill against claims it may open the door to discriminatory practices.
“I don’t see anything in your bill that says we’re legalizing bigotry or state sponsored violence or genocide or state sponsored discrimination. I don’t see it, I don’t see it,” said Massullo.
