House lawmakers are moving closer to repealing a unique Florida law that today blocks many medical malpractice lawsuits.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-1 for HB 6017, which would erase a state provision referred to by critics as Florida’s “free kill” law. Members of the committee sided with the families of lost loved ones over doctors and insurers who warn of adverse consequences.

The bill will next be heard on the House floor.

Florida law today prohibits adult children and parents older than 25 from collecting negligence and noneconomic damages for medical malpractice after the death of patients. Florida enacted the law in 1990 and remains the only state with the restriction.

It was an update to the state’s Wrongful Death Act in 1972, which in part reads, “It is the public policy of the state to shift the losses when a wrongful death occurs from the survivors of the decedents to the wrongdoer.”

The standard applies to all cases except for those involving patient care. And that, by definition, makes it a double standard, according to the bill’s sponsors, Reps. Dana Trabulsy and Johanna López.

Trabulsy, a Fort Pierce Republican, said Thursday that the purpose of her bill isn’t to hurt those working in medicine; it’s to provide equal legal protections to everyone in the Sunshine State.

“Do you believe that the life of someone lost due to negligence or malpractice is less than any other case where someone could regain noneconomic damages for wrongdoing?” she said.

“We do a very good job in the medical field here. This is not an attack on doctors whatsoever. This is creating parity in the statute and among folks that can recover noneconomic damage.”

López, an Orlando Democrat, said the measure would deliver “fairness and justice” to people who have long had little recourse after a doctor’s carelessness devastated them.

As was the case in the bill’s prior stop and in Senate discussions about its upper-chamber analog (SB 734), advocates for and against the proposal were numerous and impassioned.

Travis Creighton, one of many surviving family members, cited several Florida Supreme Court rules that conflict with the statute in question (768.21). The statute that HB 6017 aims to repeal, he said, “arbitrarily discriminates between classes of survivors (and strips) rights not for lack of harm but through a last-minute legislative carve-out.”

Karen Murillo of AARP Florida said the statute “discriminates against older and vulnerable adults” and should be deleted.

“This law has been on the books for years. It was put in place because medical malpractice insurers promised that this was going to reduce the cost for health care practitioners in this state and reduce the cost of health care,” she said. “It did not. Instead, it protected insurers from indefensible acts of medical negligence.”

Former Navarre Republican Rep. Joel Rudman, a long-practicing physician, spoke for HB 6017 too, arguing that the only doctors who want to see the statute remain in place are bad doctors. He also rejected arguments that there is a “medical malpractice meltdown” in Florida, with a surge in such legal actions in recent years.

“As a physician, my malpractice rates have remained static in the last decade. It’s not even one of (my) top three expenditures,” he said. “Doctors aren’t going to leave Florida because of this bill — no good doctor. If a bad doctor wants to leave, bye.”

A slew of medical and insurance organizations urged the committee to vote down the bill, including the Small Business and Consumers Alliance, ProAssurance Corp., The Doctors Company, Associated Industries of Florida, Florida Medical Association, Florida Osteopathic Medical Association, Florida Justice Reform Institute, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Council for Safe Communities and the Small Business and Consumer Alliance.

Shelly Nick, a registered nurse now working in health care risk management, called HB 6017 “compassionate but misdirected” and predicted it would lead to at least 500 additional wrongful death lawsuits yearly.

Vivian Gallo, Managing Director of health care casualty coverage and claims for Marsh McLennan, said that since 2019, Florida’s medical malpractice insurance premiums have been up to 70% higher than national rates. And over the same stretch, she said, premiums and deductibles hospitals must pay have both risen 60%.

That’s unusual since increased deductibles often accompany level or declining premiums, she said, and it’s because of the rising number of so-called “nuclear verdicts” in medical malpractice suits — awards of $20 million or more — that since 2017 have seen numerous insurers exit the Florida market.

It’s not unique to Florida — nuclear verdicts have increased 400% in recent years — but it’s worse here, Gallo said.

“In Florida, between 2010 and 2020, there were 11 nuclear verdicts,” she said. “Since 2023, there were eight.”

Ocoee Democratic Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis said she’s seen firsthand the unhealed wounds that “free kill” causes.

“This statute says that if you’re over 25 and lose a parent to medical negligence, your grief is worth nothing in the eyes of the law. It tells grieving families that their loved ones’ lives didn’t count,” she said. “This is not justice.”

Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Dania Beach Republican, said the bottom line is that Florida doesn’t want bad doctors, and the ones here should be held accountable.

“I don’t want to have to go through what these families went through,” she said.

She then chastised Mark Berlick of the Florida Justice Reform Institute for asserting that HB 6017 would incentivize out-of-town opportunists to sue doctors and hospitals after the death of estranged family members.

“(He) doesn’t have an ounce of data to support that, and that was nothing more than a scare tactic, (an) insult on our intelligence and an insult to the people who are here today who are clearly not estranged from the loved ones they have lost,” she said. “If you’re going to come before this committee and make assertions about what’s going to happen if we pass legislation, I expect you to bring facts and data and not scare tactics and opinions.”

Miami Lakes Republican Rep. Tom Fabricio cast the sole “no” Thursday. He didn’t ask questions or argue against the bill.

It marked the only vote in two committee stops against HB 6017, which has co-sponsorship from Republican Reps. Debbie Mayfield of Melbourne and Susan Plascencia of Orlando, as well as Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando.

HB 6017 awaits scheduling for House floor consideration. SB 734, sponsored by Jacksonville Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough, pends a hearing before the Senate Rules Committee before heading to a floor vote. It passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services by 9-2 and 8-2 votes, respectively.

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