Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantisAge: 45Florida inhabitants: 22.2 million
California
Gov. Gavin NewsomAge: 56California inhabitants: 39 million
Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — political rivals from reverse coasts and proxies for purple and blue America — are set to sq. off for a first-of-its-kind debate Nov. 30 in Georgia.
Newsom, a liberal firebrand in his second time period as governor of California, isn’t working for president in 2024. However he goaded DeSantis, in his second time period as governor of Florida, to go mano a mano. “I’ll carry my hair gel. You carry your hairspray,” he taunted on social media.
The matchup guarantees to be a heated brawl between rising political stars who lead two of the nation’s most populous and numerous states. And it’ll mark the primary time the politicians meet in particular person whilst they’ve very publicly traded barbs and insults, in latest weeks attacking one another in fundraising movies and marketing campaign adverts.
Entrance and heart can be homelessness and well being care, high priorities for voters — and points which have largely outlined the governors’ insurance policies and management kinds. From abortion to covid-19 vaccines, Newsom and DeSantis couldn’t be additional aside.
Earlier this 12 months, DeSantis blasted California for being too beneficiant with public profit packages, resembling Medicaid, which the Golden State has expanded to all eligible residents no matter immigration standing. That sweeping coverage takes impact in January and goes effectively past the optionally available growth of Medicaid that the Inexpensive Care Act provided states. In Florida, one in all 10 states which have refused to develop Medicaid below Obamacare, DeSantis wears the state’s 11% charge of uninsured residents as a badge of honor.
“We’re not going to be like California and have large numbers of individuals on authorities packages with out work necessities,” DeSantis stated at a presidential main debate in Southern California earlier this 12 months.
DeSantis has led his state to limit abortion and gender-affirming care and to ban covid-related masks and vaccine mandates.
Newsom, a slick and brash surrogate for Democratic President Joe Biden, has slammed DeSantis for placing Floridians at risk and stripping them of their rights.
“Be a part of us in California, the place we nonetheless consider in freedom,” Newsom stated in a political advert earlier this 12 months.
Newsom has earned the moniker of “well being care governor” by catapulting the difficulty to the highest of his coverage priorities. He made California an abortion sanctuary and is dramatically increasing well being care advantages. He had promised to carry single-payer well being care to the nation’s most populous state whereas campaigning for his first time period, however that concept hit stiff political opposition early in his tenure. And now Newsom boasts about bringing the state’s uninsured charge to an all-time low of 6.5% by increasing protection in different methods.
These points are anticipated to take heart stage through the nationally televised 90-minute debate on Fox Information, which might have main reverberations for the presidential contest subsequent 12 months and will even assist form the 2028 subject of White Home contenders.
Prematurely of the showdown, KFF Well being Information analyzed 10 of the governors’ high well being care positions and the way their insurance policies have improved — or hindered — the well being of the residents they symbolize.
Obamacare
Florida
DeSantis has refused to develop Medicaid eligibility to extra individuals below the Inexpensive Care Act. Partly consequently, greater than 3 million Floridians had protection by way of the federal Obamacare alternate as of February, greater than some other state. Florida doesn’t have a state-based alternate or supply state-sponsored subsidies.
California
The state has enthusiastically embraced the Inexpensive Care Act, increasing Medicaid whereas establishing its personal insurance coverage alternate, Lined California. Beneath Newsom, it has additionally gone effectively past the provisions of Obamacare and created a state requirement for Californians to have medical insurance after the federal mandate was eradicated.
Abortion
Florida
DeSantis authorised laws in April banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant. Nonetheless, the Florida Supreme Court docket has taken up a problem to the 15-week ban launched in 2022, which is able to decide if the six-week ban can take impact.
California
Newsom spearheaded the trouble in 2022 to amend the state structure to enshrine the best to abortion and contraception. He additionally authorised $60 million to assist uninsured sufferers and other people from out of state pay for abortions in California, and signed reproductive well being care legal guidelines, together with one defending medical doctors who mail abortion capsules to different states.
Transgender Care
Florida
Beneath DeSantis, Florida handed a legislation this 12 months banning gender-affirming well being care for trans minors and mandating that grownup sufferers signal knowledgeable consent types earlier than beginning or persevering with hormone therapy. The legislation additionally restricts who can order hormone remedy to physicians and prohibits using telehealth for brand new prescriptions. A federal lawsuit difficult the legislation is about to go to trial in mid-December.
California
Newsom and different state leaders have amended state legislation to make sure all California adults and youngsters are entitled to gender-affirming well being care providers. And insurance coverage firms doing enterprise in California should embody data on in-network suppliers for gender-affirming providers by 2025. State well being care businesses are designing “enforceable high quality requirements” to make sure trans sufferers have entry to complete care.
Homelessness
Florida
DeSantis has not declared homelessness a precedence. In a video filmed on the streets of San Francisco and posted to social media in June, DeSantis used the subject as a marketing campaign cudgel to criticize what he referred to as “leftist insurance policies” in California. Florida is experimenting with utilizing Medicaid funds to deal with homelessness, however this system is restricted. Almost 26,000 individuals are homeless in Florida, or 12 of each 10,000 residents.
California
Newsom has plowed greater than $20 billion into the homelessness disaster, with billions extra for well being and social providers. For instance, some homeless Californians can get social providers by way of the state’s Medicaid program, resembling cash for rental safety deposits, utility funds, and first and final month’s lease. Newsom additionally led a brand new state initiative that would drive some homeless individuals into psychological well being or habit therapy. Greater than 171,000 individuals are homeless in California, or 44 of each 10,000 residents.
Psychological Well being
Florida
DeSantis has saved his pledge to advocate for psychological well being therapy packages as governor, though Florida nonetheless ranks forty third nationally in entry to psychological well being care and has the fourth-highest charge of adults with psychological sickness who’re uninsured, in keeping with the Miami Heart for Psychological Well being and Restoration. Beneath DeSantis, Florida has elevated state funding for psychological well being packages in colleges and peer-to-peer psychological well being providers for first responders, and directed funding to suicide prevention.
California
Newsom in 2020 signed one of many nation’s strongest psychological well being parity legal guidelines, which requires insurance coverage firms to cowl psychological well being and substance use problems simply as they might bodily well being situations. He’s funding a $4.7 billion initiative to supply psychological well being therapy in colleges. Newsom can also be main the marketing campaign for a statewide, $6.4 billion bond measure in 2024 to revamp and develop community-based behavioral well being packages, together with hundreds of latest therapy beds.
Habit
Florida
Florida’s drug overdose loss of life charge was 37.5 per 100,000 individuals in 2021. In August, DeSantis introduced a brand new statewide habit restoration program billed as a “first of its sort” in america, utilizing peer counselors, medication-assisted therapy, and a coordinated community of assist providers. DeSantis additionally approved Florida counties to undertake needle alternate packages in 2019 to cut back the unfold of blood-borne ailments and encourage habit therapy.
California
California’s drug overdose charge was 26.6 per 100,000 individuals in 2021. Newsom is sending the state Freeway Patrol and Nationwide Guard into San Francisco to fight the open-air fentanyl commerce and is boosting habit restoration packages statewide. However he vetoed laws final 12 months that might have allowed Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland to ascertain protected injection websites.
Prescription Medicine
Florida
A DeSantis proposal submitted to the FDA in 2020 consists of permitting imported drugs from Canada. A brand new state legislation additionally units value limits for pharmacy profit managers — intermediaries between insurers, pharmacies, and producers — and creates new guidelines for them round pricing transparency. The legislation additionally requires pharmaceutical firms to reveal vital value hikes.
California
Newsom is spearheading a $100 million, first-in-the-nation initiative that places California within the generic drugmaking enterprise, starting with insulin and the opioid reversal drug naloxone. California already had a pricing transparency legislation when Newsom took workplace. This 12 months, he signed a legislation that tightens state rules for pharmacy profit managers.
Well being Care Affordability
Florida
In 2019, DeSantis signed the Affected person Financial savings Act, which permits well being insurers to share price financial savings with enrollees who store for well being care providers, resembling imaging and diagnostic exams. Beneath his management, Florida lawmakers have additionally allowed short-term well being plans lasting lower than a 12 months and direct well being care agreements between a affected person and a well being care supplier that aren’t thought-about insurance coverage and should not topic to Florida’s insurance coverage code.
California
Considered one of Newsom’s first well being care initiatives was to fund state-financed medical insurance subsidies for low- and middle-income residents who buy insurance coverage by way of Lined California. Newsom this 12 months additionally agreed to decrease copays and eliminate some deductibles for plans offered by way of the alternate. California’s newly created Workplace of Well being Care Affordability is capping business price will increase and will probably regulate well being business consolidation. California bans short-term well being plans.
Public Well being
Florida
DeSantis signed laws in 2021 banning authorities, colleges, and personal employers from requiring covid vaccinations. In 2023, he pushed legislators to undertake legal guidelines prohibiting sure vaccine and masks necessities. He additionally fashioned a Public Well being Integrity Committee led by his hand-picked surgeon normal, Joseph Ladapo, whose official steering on covid vaccines contradicts the CDC’s suggestions. The Sunshine State’s covid-19 vaccine booster charge for residents age 5 and older is 12.4%.
California
Newsom grew to become the primary U.S. governor to concern a statewide stay-at-home order at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. He pushed robust vaccination and masks mandates and accused DeSantis of being weak on public well being. Newsom has additionally signed legal guidelines strengthening childhood vaccination mandates, together with a measure that cracks down on bogus medical exemptions granted by medical doctors. The Golden State’s covid-19 vaccine booster charge for residents ages 5 and older is 21.9%.
Immigrant Well being Care
Florida
With DeSantis making immigration a precedence, legislators handed a state legislation requiring all Florida hospitals to ask on their admission types whether or not a affected person is a U.S. citizen or lawfully current within the nation. Docs, nurses, and well being coverage consultants say the legislation targets marginalized individuals who have already got problem navigating the well being care system and can additional deter them from looking for care.
California
Starting in January, all immigrants who meet earnings {qualifications} can be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program. Earlier than Newsom took workplace, California had already expanded eligibility to unauthorized immigrant youngsters by way of age 18. Newsom then signed legal guidelines increasing this system to younger adults as much as age 26, adults 50 and older, and, later, immigrants of any age who in any other case meet eligibility necessities.
This text was produced by KFF Well being Information, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially impartial service of the California Well being Care Basis.
