Senate refuses to hear Health Care bills!

Do you believe this is a delaying tactic? What can we do now?

Unbelievable!!

I sent an email to both my Senator and Senator Bean explaining how upset I was with their decision. I also explained that we will be sending out information to all the NPs in the state with the list of those who do not support us.

How is this allowed to happen? How can they just " refuse" to take up an issue before them? Didn't they pull this nonsense last year?

Is there anything we can do now? Can we go to Tallahassee to let them know that we are serious about this? Do you think we have enough NP support?

I have seen the posts that we sent letting the Senators know that we are not happy with their decisions. But I have yet received an e-mail from our leaders of the Senators who are not nurse friendly! If you speak loudly at the voting booth I think their could be positive change. I have been a member for many years but never have I received info on who I should be voting for at election time! If I knew I could encourage not only all nurses but my friends and neighbors to support us. Why haven't we spent any time, money or effort getting these anti- nurse senators out of office? I think more advertisement money would be well worth it!

This is definitely a disappointment .... Another way for the Senate that supports heavily with the FMA to put another delay on this.... They are trying to put their own agenda to fight other medical professionals from providing better care for the Florida residents.... I wrote to my Senators too and I did not get any response that they read or even acknowledged my letter... It is time for all of us to vote the right people!!! We need to unite as a powerful association in this state!!! Thank you to everyone who are tirelessly pushing this bill... I know that I am not alone with expressing my gratitude for all that you do!!! Let us all hope that 2016 is our year...

I emailed everyone -all the committee senators & representatives for months (regular and Special sessions). I have been in personal contact with Representative Clark-Reed and Senator Ring, who are my legislators. I also don't understand how the Appropriations Chair (Bean) can simply decide to not hear any health care legislation. How can this be done?? Is there any way to force the issue this week or bypass the Appropriations Committee? I sent letters Tuesday to my local TV news stations (ABC, CBS & NBC) but not surprisingly, no news person even responded or picked up on this. I heard not one thing about Senator Beans' behavior on the news. I have read in the newspaper generalities about what's been occuring in Tallahassee, mostly by a columnist named Gray Rohrer with the Orlando Sentinel; has anyone else read him, & noted that each time he mentions healthcare workers seeking CS expanded prescriptive authority, he calls us nurses? I wrote to him to clarify what nurses vs APNs do and explained our educational levels; his response to me was essentially that the public sees no difference between nurses and advanced practice nurses so he will not call us Advanced Practice Nurses in his columns. So goes journalistic integrity & excellence... It is disheartening to experience this again, & I feel for all of you that have carried this torch/fight for 23 years. I believe we must stick together now, plan to try again in January, but if anything can be done NOW, we should still TRY. Thanks to everyone for efforts this year, & very public thanks to Representative Pigman & Senator Grimsley. (Paulette)

Why isn't the FNA more vocal?
There is some weird politics in this state.
What we need is a good PR firm. The public really does not know what we are or what makes us different from "nurses".
More importantly, unless our inability to fully prescribe impacts MDs negatively, no one will care.

I also wrote to Senator Bean and this was the response I recieved:
Mr. Loftis,

Thank you for writing to Senator Bean. The nurse practitioner bill was heard and put up for a vote multiple times this past legislative session. During this time Senator Bean voted in favor of the bill. The bill that was heard if you would like to look it up is SB 614.

Does anyone care to comment on this?

The Miami Herald wrote an article on June 11th naming the top 20 controlled substance prescribers in the United States, (all physicians) and it turns out that these 20 are all in Florida. I wonder about the timing of the article and also if NPs could perhaps look into why this is so. There was no mention of our bill in the article. It is worth reading and getting NP feedback as to the reasons why this might be. Can we address this in a forum or the paper? I´d like the NP community thoughts on this. Thank you for your tireless work. I only heard back from one of my senators. I made it clear to them that as public servants whose salaries are paid for by our tax dollars, I expect them to do their work and hear out ALL of the bills AND vote-that is their job. If I was to pick and choose what work I would and would not do at my job, I would be fired.

All comments all valid -we just did not have the ear of the senate. This special session ended leaving our bill dead and other bills too. Our growing list of supporters and stakeholders are working to help. We want all NPs to do "The ASK" to your local Senators. The House members get it thanks to Rep. Pigman! This summer is the best time to take a couple hours to go and meet with your own senator and ask why this perpetuates yr after yr? Can we count on their vote? Yes, money and support is needed - FNPN PAC works to represent our issues to legislators! Lets make them hear us and show them 21 other states trust NPs and have FPA. Let's not leave our destiny up to the suppositions of a few who block our efforts to improve Florida health care. Get behind FNPN and help us win. The NP Force is working for you, join us on the legislative team.

I, too, wrote to each senator in NE FL asking for justice for our citizens. Vote "YES" for HB27B, allowing NPs to be full, contributing providers of the healthcare team of professionals.
Received a letter from Sen. Bean's (Jacksonville) admin. assistant that e-mail was received.
Can you guess what my vote was when Sen. Bean ran as an incumbent? I just want to hear from him how he justifies his actions as a servant of the citizens.
This just dumbfounds me.
I would be fired and probably lose my professional license if I refused to do what contracted to do.
Patricia J. Wallace, ARNP-C