Legislators
The state that is going to be discussed in the paper at hand in Florida. As for local legislators, Miami (where I live) presently has 5 State Representatives, 3 State Senators, and 2 County Commissioners responsible for solving problems that are limited to the city level. The state has its elected officials at both state and federal levels. Florida residents are represented in 4 governmental bodies (Adkins, 2016).
- Florida State Senate. This is the major legislative body of Florida. Currently, 40 senators elected by residents work there. Each represents his/her home district and serves maximum 4 years per term (no more than two terms).
- Florida State House of Representatives. This lower house includes 120 members that serve maximum 2 years (maximum 4 terms). Like in the previous body, it is required that they must originate from the district that they represent.
- The United States Senate. Like all other states, Florida has two representatives in the US Senate. Both of them can stay in office for 6 years (an unlimited number of possible terms). To be appointed, one has to win a state election.
- United States House of Representatives. The House now has 435 voting members. There are 25 representatives from Florida, all of which can stay in office for no more than two years.
At present, the state has two committees that are responsible for health care issues arising in Florida. These are the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services and the Health Policy Standing Committee, both of which have to deal with legislation related to human and community health services. As for commitments, the most pressing one now is access to health care for homeless people (since the number of them is on the increase despite the fact that the overall number is decreasing nationwide). This problem is addressed within the scope of the Gap funding Project.
Legislative Initiatives
The legislators of Florida are rather productive in their activities. Since the beginning of 2017, they have discussed over 3,000 bills. However, it must be admitted that only 250 of them were approved and signed.
There were several initiatives connected to health care problems, among which: 209 Medical Faculty & Medical Assistant Certification, 229 Health Care Practitioner Licensure, 557 Controlled Substance Prescribing, 543 Regulation of Health Care Practitioners, 101 Certificates of Nonviable Births, 5203 Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, 1307 Physician Assistant Workforce Surveys, 1307 Physician Assistant Workforce Surveys, 8-A Medical Use of Marijuana, 557 Controlled Substance Prescribing, 852 Human Trafficking, and 7907 Direct Support Organization of The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
References
Adkins, M. E. (2016). Making modern Florida: How the spirit of reform shaped a new state Constitution. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Chaudhry, H. J., Hengerer, A. S., & Snyder, G. B. (2016). Medical board expectations for physicians recommending marijuana. Jama, 316(6), 577-578.
Compton, W. M., Han, B., Hughes, A., Jones, C. M., & Blanco, C. (2017). Use of marijuana for medical purposes among adults in the United States. Jama, 317(2), 209-211.
Hill, K. P. (2015). Medical marijuana for treatment of chronic pain and other medical and psychiatric problems: A clinical review. Jama, 313(24), 2474-2483.