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 pink 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 various states. And it’ll mark the primary time the politicians meet in individual whilst they’ve very publicly traded barbs and insults, in current weeks attacking one another in fundraising movies and marketing campaign advertisements.
Entrance and middle will likely be homelessness and well being care, prime priorities for voters — and points which have largely outlined the governors’ insurance policies and management types. 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, equivalent to 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 non-obligatory growth of Medicaid that the Inexpensive Care Act supplied states. In Florida, one in all 10 states which have refused to develop Medicaid beneath Obamacare, DeSantis wears the state’s 11% fee 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 mentioned 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 in peril and stripping them of their rights.
“Be a part of us in California, the place we nonetheless consider in freedom,” Newsom mentioned 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 fee to an all-time low of 6.5% by increasing protection in different methods.
These points are anticipated to take middle stage throughout 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 discipline of White Home contenders.
Upfront of the showdown, KFF Well being Information analyzed 10 of the governors’ prime well being care positions and the way their insurance policies have improved — or hindered — the well being of the residents they characterize.
Obamacare
Florida
DeSantis has refused to develop Medicaid eligibility to extra individuals beneath the Inexpensive Care Act. Partly consequently, greater than 3 million Floridians had protection via the federal Obamacare change as of February, greater than another state. Florida doesn’t have a state-based change or provide state-sponsored subsidies.
California
The state has enthusiastically embraced the Inexpensive Care Act, increasing Medicaid whereas establishing its personal insurance coverage change, Coated California. Underneath Newsom, it has additionally gone effectively past the provisions of Obamacare and created a state requirement for Californians to have medical health insurance after the federal mandate was eradicated.
Abortion
Florida
DeSantis authorized laws in April banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant. Nevertheless, 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 suitable to abortion and contraception. He additionally authorized $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
Underneath 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 varieties earlier than beginning or persevering with hormone therapy. The legislation additionally restricts who can order hormone remedy to physicians and prohibits the usage of telehealth for brand spanking 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 companies. And insurance coverage corporations doing enterprise in California should embody info on in-network suppliers for gender-affirming companies by 2025. State well being care companies 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 known as “leftist insurance policies” in California. Florida is experimenting with utilizing Medicaid funds to handle homelessness, however this system is restricted. Practically 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 companies. For instance, some homeless Californians can get social companies via the state’s Medicaid program, equivalent to cash for rental safety deposits, utility funds, and first and final month’s lease. Newsom additionally led a brand new state initiative that might power some homeless individuals into psychological well being or dependancy 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 fee of adults with psychological sickness who’re uninsured, in accordance with the Miami Middle for Psychological Well being and Restoration. Underneath DeSantis, Florida has elevated state funding for psychological well being packages in faculties and peer-to-peer psychological well being companies 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 corporations to cowl psychological well being and substance use issues simply as they’d bodily well being situations. He’s funding a $4.7 billion initiative to supply psychological well being therapy in faculties. Newsom can 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 1000’s of latest therapy beds.
Dependancy
Florida
Florida’s drug overdose loss of life fee was 37.5 per 100,000 individuals in 2021. In August, DeSantis introduced a brand new statewide dependancy restoration program billed as a “first of its sort” in america, utilizing peer counselors, medication-assisted therapy, and a coordinated community of help companies. DeSantis additionally approved Florida counties to undertake needle change packages in 2019 to cut back the unfold of blood-borne ailments and encourage dependancy therapy.
California
California’s drug overdose fee 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 dependancy restoration packages statewide. However he vetoed laws final 12 months that might have allowed Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland to determine protected injection websites.
Prescription Medication
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 corporations to reveal important 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 companies, equivalent to imaging and diagnostic assessments. Underneath 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 will not be topic to Florida’s insurance coverage code.
California
One in all Newsom’s first well being care initiatives was to fund state-financed medical health insurance subsidies for low- and middle-income residents who buy insurance coverage via Coated California. Newsom this 12 months additionally agreed to decrease copays and do away with some deductibles for plans offered via the change. California’s newly created Workplace of Well being Care Affordability is capping trade price will increase and will probably regulate well being trade consolidation. California bans short-term well being plans.
Public Well being
Florida
DeSantis signed laws in 2021 banning authorities, faculties, 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 common, Joseph Ladapo, whose official steering on covid vaccines contradicts the CDC’s suggestions. The Sunshine State’s covid-19 vaccine booster fee for residents age 5 and older is 12.4%.
California
Newsom grew to become the primary U.S. governor to problem a statewide stay-at-home order in 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 fee 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 varieties whether or not a affected person is a U.S. citizen or lawfully current within the nation. Medical doctors, 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 searching for care.
California
Starting in January, all immigrants who meet earnings {qualifications} will likely be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program. Earlier than Newsom took workplace, California had already expanded eligibility to unauthorized immigrant kids via 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 unbiased service of the California Well being Care Basis.