Floridians know firsthand how quickly rising costs can hurt a household budget. Health care, particularly prescription drug costs, is often the most unpredictable and difficult expense to manage, so when there are important conversations in Congress about health care, most people keep a close eye on developments to ensure our policymakers do not pass legislation that would increase costs.

Fortunately, Florida has leaders who understand that affordability doesn’t come from more government mandates, but from competition, flexibility, and accountability. Sen. Rick Scott, in particular, has consistently shown he is willing to stand up for Florida families when proposals threaten to drive costs even higher.

Scott has long emphasized that Americans — not Washington bureaucrats — are best equipped to make decisions for their families. He has backed policies that keep consumers at the center of health care while resisting heavy-handed federal interference in private markets. That approach has proven especially important for employer-sponsored coverage, which millions of Floridians depend on for access to care.

Last year, Scott demonstrated that leadership in a very real way. When a massive spending package included last-minute provisions that would have inserted the federal government into the private health insurance market, including dictating how prescription benefits could be structured, he opposed it. Those provisions weren’t about lowering patients’ costs. They would have limited flexibility, increased premiums, and shifted leverage back to the pharmaceutical industry.

These issues aren’t abstract. In communities across South Florida, families are already struggling to keep up with rising prices. Seniors on fixed incomes, working parents, and small-business employees all feel the impact when health care costs rise. Too often, those rising costs are driven by prescription drug prices set by manufacturers — prices that families and employers have little ability to control. Policies that reduce choice or raise premiums only make those challenges worse.

These concerns are not just something Floridians are noticing. Voters across the country share the sentiment. Recent public opinion research confirms exactly that: a survey from the President’s pollster, John McLaughlin, of likely Midterm voters found that nearly three-quarters believe drug companies are most responsible for high prescription drug prices, not employers or patients. Even more telling, voters overwhelmingly favor keeping private health care choices available to employers rather than having the federal government impose one-size-fits-all mandates. Americans want more choice, not the government telling businesses how to design their benefits.

Large majorities also expressed deep concern that government interference in the private market would raise monthly premiums and ultimately increase Big Pharma’s profits.

Prescription drugs are a major driver of health care spending, and that disconnect between what voters want and what some policymakers are proposing is hard to ignore. Drug manufacturers alone set their prices, and those prices continue to rise year after year. Any serious effort to improve affordability should focus on increasing competition and holding drug companies accountable — not weakening the private-market tools that help keep costs in check.

Unfortunately, some of the proposals circulating in Congress would do exactly that. These ideas would bring new government mandates into the private market and eliminate options that help manage prescription drug costs. Independent analyses show these policies could raise premiums nationwide by tens of billions of dollars each year, while delivering massive new profits to drug manufacturers.

Florida families cannot afford that outcome. Neither can the American health care system as a whole. The goal of reform should be simple: lower costs, more choices, and better value for patients, not expanded government control that makes coverage more expensive.

Scott has shown that it’s possible to hold the line against policies that ultimately raise costs. As Congress continues its health care debates, Florida’s delegation should follow his lead and stay focused on real solutions that protect affordability, preserve flexibility, and put patients first.

That’s the kind of leadership Floridians expect — and the kind we need right now.

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Barbara Casanova is the National Secretary and Florida Chair of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. She also serves on the Miami-Dade Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board.

Juan Dominguez feared for his child Kai entering a deep depression, angry at the world, before a doctor finally provided a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. The father knew little about transgender identity at the time, but saw an immediate turnaround once Kai was treated.

But as Florida implemented new laws restricting medical professionals from providing gender-affirming care to minors, that doctor can no longer provide care, nor can any other in the state.

“The doctor that helped us identify Kai’s condition can no longer see us. We are not allowed to be open with other doctors because they won’t accept our child in their clinics,” Domingue said. “Doctors spend years studying the research. They know their patients. Medical decisions belong with families and doctors, not politicians.”

Dominguez was one of several parents to speak Wednesday at an Equality Florida press conference in Tallahassee, condemning a new round of laws aimed at LGBTQ Floridians. Parents of transgender children said their children have been humiliated in school, denied care and silenced repeatedly for any objection to what they say are draconian laws.

Equality Florida Executive Director Stratton Pollitzer said this follows a trend of attacks, ones that too often originate from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office.

“Let’s understand why DeSantis and this small band of his cronies are so obsessed with attacking the LGBTQ community,” Pollitzer said.

“These bills are smoke bombs meant to distract Floridians from the complete failure of Ron DeSantis and his allies to address the real crises Floridians are facing: lack of affordability, a housing emergency, and skyrocketing insurance costs.”

The press conference called out legislation, including one dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans at Work” bill threatening funding from organizations holding LGBTQ sensitivity training. Activists also took the state to task for many bills passed in prior years, most in a stretch before DeSantis’ ultimately failed run for President.

Those included bans on transgender students in women’s sports, restrictions on medical care being provided to minors and coverage to adults, and the state’s notorious “Parental Rights in Education” law barring any instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation through high school, a prohibition that includes outlawing the use of preferred pronouns or nicknames by school faculty and staff.

Luisa Montoya, President of PFLAG Broward, said she was upset she could not even register her trans son in school with his preferred name.

“Because of this, my child was repeatedly called by his birth name in front of other students. Sometimes it happened in the classroom, sometimes in the hallway. And once, it even happened over the school megaphone,” Montoya said.

“I will never forget the look on my child’s face. That moment reminded me why I fight. Because school should be a place of learning and safety — not fear or humiliation.”

Jennifer Solomon, head of Equality Florida’s Parenting with Pride program, stressed that LGBTQ families deserve representation in Tallahassee. And she said parents are one group that won’t be silenced.

“Look around. These parents are not here as strangers. They are your neighbors, your colleagues, your friends. Every one of them has a child they cherish and a story they want to be heard,” Solomon said.

“This fight is not abstract. It is deeply personal. I live it every day — in every choice I make, in every conversation I have about the future of Florida, and in every moment I stand beside families who are facing these threats with courage and love.”

Pollitzer said he was heartened in recent Legislative Sessions when, despite anti-LGBTQ legislation being filed and occasionally heard in committee, few bills have passed.

“Last year we saw a growing number of legislators refuse to waste more time on these awful bills and with people power we defeated all of them,” he said.

“We hope that with real challenges facing everyday Floridians lawmakers will again refuse to prioritize DeSantis’s agenda of more censorship, surveillance, and government control. But hope does not mean silence. And it does not mean standing down.”

A Senate committee advanced a bill to create an artificial intelligence bill of rights aiming to protect consumers and minors.

With unanimous bipartisan support, the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee backed Sen. Tom Leek’s bill (SB 482).

“Quite simply, we get a 60-day Session once a year. If we don’t act and Congress doesn’t act, those protections won’t exist for Florida’s children and vulnerable adults,” Leek, a Port Orange Republican, told lawmakers before the 10-0 vote Wednesday. “So I believe we have to act.”

Wednesday’s vote was the bill’s first committee stop to support Gov. Ron DeSantis’ agenda as the measure heads next to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

DeSantis has increasingly been calling for more regulation to protect young people from the dangers of AI technology. But President Donald Trump has also been critical of states passing AI reforms and signed an executive order in December aimed at restricting states from overregulating the technology.

Leek argued that his bill doesn’t defy Trump’s order.

“I think the protections that we’ve got here for minors and for vulnerable adults, and for all of us really, are in line with what President Trump wants,” Leek said during Wednesday’s hearing.

Leek argued Trump was striking back against “onerous restrictions,” while his bill was specifically focused on consumer protections.

“It is purposely and deliberately targeted at those protections and not … the universe of things that could be done,” Leek said.

Under Leek’s bill, chatbot platforms would be required to post pop-up warnings that a person is talking to AI. The message would appear at the start of the conversation and reappear at least every hour.

Children would not be allowed to communicate with chatbots without parental permission. Parents would have control to see their child’s communications with the chatbot and could also limit access or delete the child’s account.

The bill would also require minors to be reminded to “take a break” at least once every hour.

Chatbot platform operators that violate the proposed new rules could face civil fines up to $50,000 per violation.

The AI bill of rights legislation comes after a 14-year-old Orlando boy killed himself in 2024 after he had been chatting with an AI bot extensively. Some of the conversations turned sexual and romantic. The family later sued in a case that got national coverage by The New York Times.

“Artificial intelligence, holding a great deal of promise, also poses novel and unique threats. Generative AI in particular can be particularly insidious in some contexts when used by children or unsuspecting or vulnerable or adults,” Leek said at Wednesday’s hearing.

“Given the incredible pace of the evolution of the technology and its adoption by business and academia, it is incumbent on us to protect Floridians for some of its problematic results.”

Several advocates and Democrats praised the bill, while also arguing there was room for improvement in Leek’s legislation.

“We would like to be a part of the conversation,” said Florida AFL-CIO lobbyist Rich Templin. “This is a great consumer protection beginning, but what about workers?”

And Turner Loesel, a technology policy analyst at the James Madison Institute, warned that the bill’s language needed to be tweaked, which Leek teased is coming. Leek said he is still working with stakeholders to tighten the bill’s definitions.

“Its definition of artificial intelligence is broad enough to capture spam filters alongside companion chatbot platforms, and we look forward to the amendments on that definition,” Loesel said.

Sen. Carlos  Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, called the bill a good first step but also agreed the legislation could be beefed up.

“We need meaningful accountability in the bill. Floridians deserve more than promises. They deserve proof. That means compliance reporting and audits that show companies are actually protecting biometric data, that they’re preventing misuse, and that they’re operating transparently,” Smith said.

“I think relying solely on political actors in the Office of the Attorney General for enforcement is not enough. To stop harmful conduct, I think we need stronger civil protections, including a private cause of action for all ages to defend all of our rights that are outlined in this AI bill of rights.”