Concerns about privacy are behind an amendment that drastically weakened a ban on texting while driving -- which passed Wednesday in the House -- and swirled around a bill on medical malpractice, still pending in the House.
The texting-while-driving ban passed the House 110 to 6 and headed back to the Senate as a very different bill than the one that chamber sent to the House, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports.
The House voted around noon Wednesday to approve a bill on medical malpractice. (Update: It's on its way to the governor's desk.)
They will vote later Wednesday afternoon on a bill that updates eligibility requirements for the state’s insurance marketplace, Florida Health Choices.
Several health-related bills are on their way to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk for his signature, including:
- A bill that limits the amount doctors can charge for repackaged drugs for workers' compensation patients.
- A bill that includes a provision to allow video testimony from children who are abused to be used as evidence in court in some cases.
- A measure that would make it more difficult for patients who voluntarily seek hospital treatment for mental illnesses to get a permit for a gun, the Florida Times-Union reports.
- A bill that replaces the phrase “mental retardation” with “intellectual disabilities” within the text of state laws, the Miami Herald reports.
- A measure that terminates a rapist’s parental rights when the assault produces a child, the Miami Herald reports.