Hospital leaders urge legislators not to further destabilize Florida’s healthcare landscape

Miami Herald, March 12, 2008

Florida's hospital leaders are urging state legislators to reject a proposal to eliminate the state's planning process for new hospitals. The hospitals warn that the proposal would further destabilize a healthcare system already bracing for cuts in funding to care for the elderly and poor, and one that is grappling with serious shortages of doctors and health workers. Eliminating health planning for new hospitals would lead to an explosion of small, "limited service" hospitals and a two-tiered hospital system in the state, the hospital leaders said.