Florida: State Senate District 16

Candidates

Allison McInnis-Gimbert, Democrat
Jim Sebesta, Republican

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

The issue boxes contained on this page are not clickable online. Please print the page and make notes for your reference.

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: Allison McInnis-Gimbert

Seasoned observers know the Executive and Legislative Branches of Florida—under the guidance and control of Republicans—have openly accommodated the agenda of their main financial supporters—special interests.

Their relentless, outrageous efforts to deny juries their right to award reasonable compensatory damages to nursing home residents, and/or their survivors, for negligence or intentional injury and death, respectively, is a prime example of this unjust accommodation!

I strongly support the right to sue for unlimited compensatory damages for these unthinkable injuries or deaths, including consideration of pain and suffering, as well as economic losses. In addition, I strongly support the right to sue for punitive damages, the surest way of forcing corporations to provide quality care/treatment for all necessarily confined in ALF’s or nursing homes.

Candidate Response: Jim Sebesta

During past Sessions, the Legislature has attempted to solve this problem by increasing the required number of nurses in nursing homes. Unfortunately, we have such a shortage of nurses in Florida, it didn’t work. Now the Federal Government is considering a “take-over.”

This Session, we will consider creating a new position, Certified Geriatric Nurse, equal in quality and requirements to an LPN but easier to achieve. We will also consider reciprocal agreements with other states, always maintaining our high quality.

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: Allison McInnis-Gimbert

Improving the availability, affordability, and quality of long-term care for our elderly citizens—who have served our nation and State so very well—has now reached a crisis point!

Obviously every possible source of Federal and State funding must be reviewed and all provisions explored, with great mass media publicity. Based upon the 2000 Federal National Census, it’s believed our State—by substantial population increase—is entitled to more monies from Federal sources than has yet been claimed or realized.

In addition, the “Faith-based initiative” proposed by President Bush must be fully explored as an additional Federal source of funding, tailored to our State’s need.

Finally, churches, synagogues, and mosques in nearby communities must be mobilized for their assistance in meeting this urgent need!

Candidate Response: Jim Sebesta

Home-based care is the short-term and probably the long-term solution. The majority of patients would like to stay in their homes but cannot because insurance or other coverage won’t allow it, or the care givers are not available.

This Session, we will concentrate on home care, a concept I very much support.

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: Allison McInnis-Gimbert

Once again the problem is the cozy accommodation by the Republican-controlled Governor’s Office and Legislature—being far more concerned over maintaining or increasing the income of their corporate supporters by governmental favor, than sincerely concerned over increasing utilities expenses overburdening our elderly citizens on fixed, limited incomes.

I will of course, strongly support any measure for smart electric deregulation that benefits consumers, and strongly oppose any increase in basic consumer telephone rates.

I will strongly support efforts of private “watchdog” groups monitoring all proposed legislation and regulations to ensure the public knowing in advance what is being considered for enactment by the Legislature, including proposals from the Governor’s Office; also alerting “legal watch-dog” groups for possible litigation as needed in protecting consumers of utilities.

Candidate Response: Jim Sebesta

This past Session, there was an attempt to raise local phone rates by $5.00 per month to be offset by lowering “in-Florida” long distance. Many in Florida make very few long distance calls and it just didn’t seem fair. I strongly disagreed with the plan and voted against it. Fortunately, Gov. Bush also disagreed and vetoed the bill.

We must protect not only the very low income residents of Florida but also the many who are just above the financial support level but are still struggling to make ends meet. I strongly support this philosophy.