Florida: State House District 58

Candidates

Bob Henriquez, Democrat
Hector Vila, Republican

Issues: Nursing Home Quality | Long Term Care | Utility Regulation |

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Question

Florida law provides the right to sue and recover damages when a long-term care facility provides negligent care that results in injury or death to a resident. What is your position on limiting non-economic compensatory damage awards against facilities whose negligent care results in a resident’s injury or death?

AARP Response

AARP believes that the right to sue a long-term care facility when negligent care results in a resident’s injury or death is essential to our efforts to ensure the quality of long-term care. Arbitrary limits on the damages awarded in lawsuits devalue the worth of older people and seriously impede or eliminate this right.

The staff report of the Task Force on the Availability and Affordability of Long-term Care found no frivolous lawsuits filed against long-term care facilities. Lawsuits are filed when residents suffer serious injuries and conditions such as bedsores, malnutrition, dehydration and broken bones.

The single-most important factor in preventing these problems is the presence of adequate numbers of well-trained staff. Florida law now provides for minimum staffing levels and the legislature appropriated the funds to achieve these levels.

Senate Bill 1202, passed by the 2001 legislature, created a carefully developed balance between regulation, quality, litigation reform, and funding. This important legislation will, when fully implemented, reduce the number of lawsuits, improve the quality of care and protect the rights of residents to seek redress in the courts when they are harmed.

AARP will oppose any change in the law that would alter the balance created in Senate Bill 1202 because any such change would be harmful to residents.

Issue	Yes	No	Unclear
Opposes any limits on compensatory damages for nursing home residents.
Supports protecting the right of residents to sue nursing home and assisted living facilities.
Opposes any changes to the law created by Senate Bill 1202 (Florida law 2001-45)

Candidate Response: Bob Henriquez

Our nursing home industry is in crisis in the State of Florida. However, we should not sacrifice the rights of our most vulnerable and valuable citizens simply to prop up financially a struggling industry. If a resident is injured and a facility is legally at fault they should pay for their negligence.

Candidate Response: Hector Vila

Being a senior myself, I can well relate to seniors needs and rights. Having had close relatives in Nursing Home I am well aware that at times there is negligence that results in injury or death. I support protecting the right of residents to sue nursing home and assisted living facilities and will defend this issue. I do believe that both nursing homes and assisted living facilities need to improve the quality of care and living conditions. Senior must be able to feel that they are an important part of our society.

Question

Many people cannot find affordable, quality home and community-based long-term care and face long waiting lists when they need help with the cost of their care. How would you improve the availability, affordability and quality of long-term care, particularly home and community-based care?

AARP Response

Long-term care services can be costly. Many people cannot afford to pay for them. Public funding for long-term care is limited and waiting lists for services are long. Many people do not have family or friends to help them and few have private long-term care insurance.

In addition, the current long-term care system is fragmented and confusing to those who need to use it. Public funding is used predominantly for nursing home care. The amount and quality of services is inadequate. Information about the availability and quality of services is not readily available to consumers.

Because of these problems many older people do not receive the long-term care services they need. They live in fear of impoverishing themselves and becoming a burden to their families. Their health and the quality of their lives decline unnecessarily.

Florida must have a comprehensive, cohesive system to meet the long-term care needs of all Floridians regardless of age and income. Creating such a system must be a legislative priority.

The system should:

• Be adequately funded,
  
  
• Emphasize home and community-based care,
  
  
• Focus on the needs of consumers,
  
  
• Provide for consumers to direct their own care,
  
  
• Support the role of families in providing care,
  
  
• Be easily accessible.
  
  
• Coordinate with private insurance coverage,
  
  
• Focus on the quality of care and the quality of life,
  
  
• Improve the coordination between health and long-term care services,and
  
  
• Be efficiently administered.
  
  

Issue	Yes	No	Unclear
Supports funding to eliminate current and future waiting lists for people who need financial assistance.
Proposes ways to meet the long-term care needs of all Floridians, not just those who need financial assistance.
Supports the development of a long-term care system focused on the needs of consumers not providers.

Candidate Response: Bob Henriquez

The state of Florida should aggressively pursue reforms and increased reimbursement from the federal level which takes into account the unique demographic circumstances in our state. In addition we should increase assistance for those families willing to provide opportunities for elderly to age in place at home, through such programs as Community Care for the Elderly. Finally, the State should try to solve the insurance crisis that has made it difficult for nursing home operators to do business in this state.

Candidate Response: Hector Vila

While we were searching for Long Term Care we did encounter obstacles which were overcome by persistence of search. Today Long Term Care is more readily available to everyone then ever before. I feel this industry will continue to improve due to the needs of our seniors to choose the right provider to meet their needs. Further in-depth study is necessary to determine other avenues such as choosing to hire family members, friends, etc. in order to maintain both a healthy physical and mental environment at an affordable cost or with financial assistance from a state agency. This would also provide work for those that would no longer be able to work outside their home in order to care for their loved ones.

Question

In recent years the Florida legislature has considered a number of proposals that would alter the regulation of public utilities and benefit service providers at the expense of service consumers. How would you protect Florida consumers from unnecessary increases in their electric and basic phone bills?

AARP Response

The 2002 legislature passed legislation that would have increased consumer’s basic phone rates by as much as $8 per month. This legislation was vetoed by the Governor at the urging on AARP and other consumer groups.

Supporters of this legislation claimed it would stimulate competition in the local phone services and ultimately benefit consumers. The claim was based on the faulty idea that local phone rates are being subsidized by other services offered by local phone service companies. The bill was supposed to correct this subsidy problem.

AARP disputes that local service is subsidized and offers evidence to prove the point. (see AARP publication -- Current Issues in the Pricing of Telecommunications Services). AARP further challenged supposed consumer protections that were added to the bill. There was no consumer protection in the bill that would have offset the massive phone rate increases it would have led to.

Electricity: In the hope of encouraging lower prices, higher service quality and greater innovation, lawmakers across the country are considering whether and how to restructure the electric industry to allow consumers to purchase electricity from competing suppliers rather than from the traditional regulated monopoly structure. The Governor’s 2020 Energy Commission is considering restructuring in Florida.

The extent to which implementation of retail competition benefits residential consumers is unclear. Benefits in the form of lower rates are not guaranteed to residential ratepayers, who are at a disadvantage since they do not purchase enough electricity to be as attractive to competitors as industrial customers. If the outcome of restructuring is left entirely to the marketplace, residential consumers are likely to be the last class of customers to benefit if they receive any benefits at all.

If the electric industry in Florida is restructured, safeguards should be adopted that ensure just, reasonable and affordable rates and high-quality service for residential customers under retail competition. The legislature should ensure that residential ratepayers receive equitable and simultaneous benefits, including rate reductions, equal access and better service, from retail competition.

Issue	Yes	No	Unclear
Supports electric deregulation that specifically benefits the consumer.
Opposes an increase in basic consumer phone rates.

Candidate Response: Bob Henriquez

I supported and opposed various attempts to address the issue of creating competition in our local phone markets. I think it is a very complex issue that requires an open mind from both business interests and consumer groups. I believe the best way to protect consumers is to bring them into the legislative process on this and other issues. The ground rules should be that any piece of legislation that is passed does not increase consumer’s phone bills. Any increase in phone rates must be offset by a lowering of some other portion of the bill. In addition, there must be some assurance that the phone companies will not utilize a short window of good will to then raise rates at will in the future.

Candidate Response: Hector Vila

At this time I would not consider going into deregulation. I think that there is a track record that shows us to be one of the lowest energy cost states. If in the future the utility company wants to increase either electric or telephones they would have to show reasons and proof documents to make the increase a fair and necessary step. I oppose an increase in basic consumer phone rates, especially for the seniors.