TALLAHASSEE, FL—Despite Gov. Ron DeSantis' recent efforts to beef up Florida's healthcare and transportation systems, a new report analyzing public safety and infrastructure has ranked the Sunshine State in the abysmally low 44th position.
In other words, Florida's in the bottom ten.
"Florida's low emergency health care ranking and lengthy commutes outweigh its decent bridge and internet statistics," read the report, conducted by the Michigan-based health and safety company ProTrainings. "The state has a low percentage of structurally deficient bridges but still struggles with health care and commute efficiency."
Released on Sunday, the report claims that "policy changes and budget cuts" have "exacerbated" Florida's infrastructure issues, citing a 2022 budget item that cut $300 million in non-recurring critical care funding to some hospitals that catered to Medicare patients, resulting in 28 hospitals losing millions.
Four main factors were evaluated to determine the overall ranking for public safety and infrastructure: emergency healthcare, commute time, internet coverage, and how many bridges are structurally deficient. While Florida has relatively good internet coverage and only 3% of its bridges are deficient, this isn't enough to outweigh its 41st-place ranking in emergency healthcare and its status as the fifth-worst transportation-efficient state nationwide, with an average commute time of just under 28 minutes.
Florida's low-ranking status brings up another concern: hurricanes. As the state that experiences the most hurricanes, and is, on average, hit by at least one tropical storm every three years (those numbers have increased in the past few years), the prospect of a state with already poor transportation efficiency having to shut down roadways brings up worries about increased challenges in response and recovery efforts.
This year, Gov. DeSantis and the Legislature have attempted to ameliorate some of these issues by passing new laws allocating millions to statewide medical staff shortages and healthcare research and signing off on a budget item pumping a record $15.5 billion into transportation and infrastructure projects.
Less-populated states like South Dakota, Vermont, and Indiana ranked in the top three while the bottom three were comprised of New York, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. In terms of healthcare rankings, Maine and South Dakota were in the top two while D.C. and Rhode Island languished at the bottom.
