Even with “Medical Freedom” vanquished, party lines still divide the eight candidates
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: October 4, 2024
Host: In the race for the Sarasota Hospital Board, it’s now down to mainstream Republican versus Democratic candidates. Even though all “Medical Freedom” activists were eliminated during the Republican primaries, clear choices are emerging. Florence Fahringer reports.
Florence Fahringer: This past Wednesday, all eight hospital board candidates gathered online for a forum held by the Sarasota League of Women Voters. It may have been the only chance for Sarasota voters to see each and every hospital board candidate in the same room together, even if it was just a zoom meeting.
Pam Beitlich
The candidates were given seven questions to answer, and no chance for rebuttal. When asked what additional initiatives they would like to advance, answers fell along party lines. Republicans emphasized the importance of expanding pediatric care. Candidate Pam Beitlich.
Pam Beitlich: Actually one of my passions is going to be around pediatric care. We’ve built quite a bit here in the community, but we have a lot of young families moving into the community, especially down in Northport, up by Parish, et cetera. I think it’s something that we can continue to grow as we work with our partner, All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete.
FF: Democrats, on the other hand, prioritized other areas; Democrat Vicki Nighswander went as far as to challenge the Republicans’ emphasis by advocating instead for geriatric care.
Vicki Nighswander: With about 47% of our population being seniors, I think more focus on geriatric care is kind of in our face. And listening to my friends around my age, I strongly think there’s quite a bit of support for that.
Dale Anderson
FF: When asked about what responsibility the hospital board held towards alleviating healthcare disparities across the county, Democrats emphasized education, as typified by candidate Dale Anderson’s answer. Disclaimer: Anderson is a board member of WSLR.
Dale Anderson: There are whole reports done for the community around trying to reduce hospital disparities. And I think it was four or five years ago, a comprehensive report was made. I’m not sure to what extent that’s been integrated into the thinking of the board and adoption of the board on those issues. Disparities are real, and getting a clear definition of what it is, getting the board some education on what constitutes disparities, as well as the medical staff, I think are a real important first step towards addressing those.
FF: On a number of questions, Republicans and Democrats’ answers overlapped. Candidates from both parties rejected the “chaos” introduced to the board by the most recently elected board members, who ran on a far-right “Health Freedom” platform. Here’s Anderson and his rival Kevin Cooper espousing similar sentiments.
Kevin Cooper
DA: When you have chaos or poor behavior in board meetings and their public, other people, potential physicians and other staff that might be thinking of coming into the community will be looking at those meetings. And it’s very important that we figure out how to maintain decorum and respectability among board members and the community.
Kevin Cooper: I’ve been out there campaigning and talking to folks in Sarasota County for the last 10 months about this board. And what I know is consistently the message is the people of Sarasota County do not want people coming in and politicizing our institutional boards and offices.
FF: The last question concerned emergency pregnancy care, indirectly alluding to Florida’s draconian abortion laws. The candidates were in agreement as well; in this realm, they could only mitigate risk while following the law.
Some patterns emerged from the candidates’ answers: different Democrats answering different questions all touched on the need for expanding Medicare and Medicaid. Here’s George Davis and Alan Sprintz touching on the topic.
Alan Sprintz
George Davis: Touching on the same topic, we have to look at issues like Medicaid expansion, covering some of these communities. But the real issue is I think we really need to re-educate ourselves about what creates these disparities and that will take a learning curve for all of us.
Alan Sprintz: And I think we need to, as an institution, we need to expand the availability of the ability of people to get health care. For example, the expansion of Medicaid. In the community, our state is one of the few that has not done that, and it affects the people in the community, particularly at the lower level.
FF: As for the Republicans, Kevin Cooper returned time and time again to the need for SMH’s expansion in North Port.
KC: I think the top initiative for me is continuing the geographic expansion into Northport. If we’re really going to be a true community hospital, we have to have equitable geographic access to a hospital. Ambulatory centers, freestanding ERs, aren’t enough. I don’t want to have to be transported an hour to get to the ER, I want them to have community access to their community hospital. And for me, that’s the number one initiative.
FF: Meanwhile, Pam Beitlich emphasized the need for community outreach.
PB: In my role as the Executive Director with Women and Children, one of the things I became very involved with was the community. For example, we started an initiative called First 1000 Days. And what I learned through all of that was that community partnerships are incredibly important for us and the hospital. I think it’s very important that we reach out to the community, that they are able to come to the hospital board meetings, give public comment. I know we’re going to maintain all of that. It’s something that we think is extremely important.
FF: Sarasota will pick four of these eight candidates on November Fifth. All Sarasota County residents are eligible to vote for all candidates, regardless of district.
This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.