Posted in Business, Escambia County, Florida, Health, Politics, State & National News

Thank you, Fred Levin

   August 9, 2024

This week the News Service of Florida provided the list of future payments from Big Tobacco to the state of Florida.

Fred Levin was the mastermind of the historic 1997 settlement.

From Fred’s profile on the Levin Papantonio website:

Fred’s greatest notoriety came as a result of rewriting Florida’s Medicaid Third-Party Recovery Act, permitting the state of Florida to sue the tobacco industry for Medicaid costs in treating smoking-related illnesses. After coming up with the idea and then writing the legislation, Fred approached a good friend who was the dean of the Florida Senate. The two then went to the Governor of Florida, who loved the idea. The dean of the Senate was able to get the law passed on the last day of the session, during the last minutes of the session.

After the passage of Fred’s law, John French, a lobbyist for Philip Morris USA, railed, “This is probably the single biggest issue to ever have been run through in the dead of the night.”

Gannett News Service wrote: “What they engineered was a first-of-its-kind bill making it much easier for the state to recoup money it spends for treating cancer patients and others with smoking-related diseases. . . . Its created such an uproar in Tallahassee that tobacco companies have pledged millions of dollars to fight the bill either by getting it vetoed or using the upcoming special session on health care to change or eliminate it.”

By the Numbers: Tobacco Company Payments

Under a 1997 legal settlement, tobacco companies are required to make annual payments to Florida to help cover smoking-related health care costs. Here are projected payment amounts by fiscal year, according to a new state report:

— 2023-2024: $352.2 million

— 2024-2025: $354.4 million

— 2025-2026: $359.6 million

— 2026-2027: $365.3 million

— 2027-2028: $371.3 million

— 2028-2029: $377.7 million

— 2029-2030: $384.5 million

— 2030-2031: $391.6 million

— 2031-2032: $398.7 million

— 2032-2033: $406.5 million

— 2033-2034: $414.7 million

Source: Legislature’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research

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