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Capitol: Texting, Med-Mal, Others

The capitol buildings in Tallahassee
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

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 billthan 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 billthat 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. 
Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.