Governor Charlie Crist finally got his Kodak moment a few hours before the Florida legislature wrapped up its 2008 session. The House and Senate passed the governor's plan to provide low-cost, no-frills health-care coverage to the 3.8 million uninsured Floridians. The bill also included the House initiative that creates a state-run corporation to work as a clearing house for selling low-cost, stripped-down health benefits to workers of small businesses
On the surface, Crist had achieved something that eluded his predecessor, Jeb Bush, as well as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: He got his health-care reform plan through the legislature. “This is historic legislation,” a beaming Crist told a roomful of reporters minutes after the final vote in the House.
Sen. Durell Peaden (R-Crestview), who carried the bill through the Senate, remarked, “In the 14 years that I've been in the legislature, we've taken baby steps to improve the quality of insurance for every citizen in Florida. Today, we took a giant step.”
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