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Byron Donalds: “I think in Florida we do have to increase funding in mental…”

Featuring: Byron Donalds, Republican | U.S. House, Florida, District 19

Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL

Published February 21, 2026 | Video Starts at 24:29

I think if you're going to talk about young people overall and I don't want it's not a burden we can place on schools because educators have enough that they have to manage. They also can't be mental health counselors as well. I think in Florida we do have to increase funding in mental health. I also think that we should examine research reopening some of the old state facilities with respect to mental health because you have to provide a place where people can … (24:29–24:34)

CLAIM

Asserts that Florida should increase funding for mental health.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Byron Donalds

“The Office of Insurance Regulation in Florida reported...none of the insurance companies in our state have requested a rate increase.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 04:54-05:04
“If the losses in Florida go over $17 million, every insurance policy in our state can be assessed.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 28:46-28:55
“Half of the state's operating systems, not half, maybe 30%, some of them still run on Dos Brock.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 40:32-40:42
“Kennedy Space Center over in Cape Canaveral, they did 160, 65 launches last year.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 45:22-45:30
“They're slated in about five years to do 400 launches.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 45:30-45:35
“The insurance market, property and casualty, has stabilized.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 04:32-04:36
“The auto insurance rates are actually coming down.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 04:38-04:41
“We're going to keep the reforms that Governor DeSantis and the legislature put into place several years ago.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 05:13-05:20
“We're actually going to see further rate reduction this year [in reinsurance].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 06:13-06:19
“Florida is going to Lead the way on this. We are going to examine how we do Medicaid in our state.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 08:32-08:38
“We need to be far more efficient in delivering real choices and real interventions at key times [in healthcare].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 12:54-13:03
“We want to drive far better health outcomes, not just using the whole healthcare system the way it's always been.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 13:25-13:32
“We are not going to expand Medicaid [in Florida].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 16:43-16:46
“Medicaid expansion under Obamacare will create a major fiscal burden for the state of Florida.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 16:47-16:53
“Current Medicaid expansion calls for 90% payment for able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 54 by the federal government.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 16:56-17:14
“When they've expanded Medicaid, you actually get a flood of able-bodied adults out of the private health insurance market and into Medicaid.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 17:17-17:28
“It actually crowds [the elderly, young with major issues, pregnant women] out when you expand Medicaid.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 17:48-17:53
“If Florida doesn't catch it, we still pay for [Medicaid recipients who leave the state] here in Florida.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 18:36-18:36
“We're going to give prompt answers instead of having to wait 60, 90, 120 days, it should be 30 days or less.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 19:05-19:22
“Florida's government has to be just as responsive as Florida's businesses.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 19:38-19:43
“We're going to do all the eligibility checks, all the fraud checks.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 20:16-20:20
“Health care and Medicaid is going to be a major part of [Florida's government reforms and modernizations].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 22:07-22:11
“Florida is going to have to completely re-examine mental health top to bottom.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 23:23-23:28
“We should examine reopening some of the old state facilities with respect to mental health.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 24:33-24:52
“The number one thing that's pushed [property insurance rates] down has been tort reform in our state.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 25:43-25:43
“Citizens announced, I think it was like an 8 to 10% rate reduction in citizens policies.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 26:03-26:09
“The litigation costs are down because of tort reform that happened a couple of years ago in the legislature.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 26:12-26:18
“The actuaries in our, the insurance companies, they need five years in order to do a full look back on what the true cost is to rate risk in…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 26:28-26:40
“The reason why people choose to do business in Florida is because we're a common sense, pretty low regulation environment.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 30:04-30:12
“Anti Semitism and any other form of bigotry, racism are simply not going to be tolerated [in Florida].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 31:01-31:07
“Political leaders have a responsibility to establish moral clarity on [issues of bigotry].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 32:19-32:24
“Infrastructure is critical for [Florida's] growth.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 34:30-34:30
“You have to have streamlined permitting and planning in these regions of our state.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 34:33-35:06
“It's actually quite rare for local government officials across jurisdictional lines to actually sit down and talk about these things.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 35:08-35:15
“One of the government agencies said, well, we do our own design work. All right, well, how long is that going to take? Three years. Three…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 36:24-36:38
“I commend the governor for actually opening up his moving Florida forward plan where he was taking some dollars to expedite key projects.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 36:50-36:59
“We grew very, very fast over the last six years. Very fast. It was unexpected, but it happened.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 37:54-38:02
“We have old legacy systems in state government that have not changed in a very long time.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 40:44-40:52
“Governor DeSantis and Governor Scott, this is not their fault. They have made strides in trying to modernize the information systems of the…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 40:53-41:02
“Government has a responsibility now to move at the speed of business.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 42:08-42:12
“When we got rid of the film credits, I was in the legislature.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 43:36-43:40
“Europeans are the ones who provide all the [film] credits.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 43:50-43:50
“We have really chosen not to go down a broad based incentives route [for film industry].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 44:13-44:19
“We have a geographic advantage because we can access both poles of the earth here in Florida.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 45:37-45:47
“Finance is coming to our state. They're also going to Texas because New York and Illinois have plummeted.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 46:55-47:04
“PBMs, when they were originally created, there was a reason... That simply doesn't really exist anymore.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 48:27-48:48
“A lot of these PBMs, they have walked their ways into a very profitable industry and now they kind of don't want to let it go.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 49:05-49:17
“We're going to have to reform that entire situation.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 49:18-49:21
“It has to be real transparency. It has to be an open system where people can see the real costs and take advantage of them.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 49:46-49:56
“This is why President Trump has been pushing so hard on most favored nation status. And I agree with him because with where we are in the…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 49:55-50:07
“We need to look at real reforms [for PBMs].”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 50:10-50:14
“If we were going to make some adjustments to Medicaid and we didn't as Part of the DPP stuff that we're having to deal with here in Florida…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 51:16-51:32
“The governor is beginning to look at that and try to deploy how some of those resources are going to be utilized in our state.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 51:34-51:41
“Rural healthcare has to kind of resemble the concierge model per se, but it has to really kind of what was old is kind of new again.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 51:58-52:10
“We believe that those dollars will help to facilitate that and actually help build out the internal infrastructure needed so you can have a…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 52:40-52:52
“Our standards in Florida need to be about young people mastering math, reading and writing when they graduate high school.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 54:52-55:00
“We also need to help them identify what their natural strengths are in life. Maybe your natural strengths do not take you to the university…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 55:01-55:11
“At the university level, what I think we need to start looking at is the economic viability of some of these degrees.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 55:41-55:48
“Every child in our state should have an individual learning plan.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 57:08-57:13
“We fund [education] not just to say we did it and it gives somebody a degree or a piece of paper that doesn't help them be successful in…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 57:50-58:00
“What you're actually going to see with most favored nation, you're going to have a stabilizing cost, a true appreciation of the cost of…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 59:27-59:43
“The United States and our people are subsidizing that cost for everybody else.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 59:42-59:47
“Pharmaceutical companies are starting to really invest in technology to help squeeze the timeline in R&D.”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 1:00:04-1:00:15
“We've not had a dynamic free market system [in pharmaceuticals]. We've had a system of heavy subsidization, most of it coming from the…”
Health Care and Insurance Listening Session – Tampa, FL | Uploaded February 21, 2026 | 1:00:50-1:01:03