As a surgeon, I am trained to focus on outcomes. When I stand at a bedside, assessing a child in need while parents anxiously look to me for help, there is only one question that matters: “How can I get this child healthy and back home again in the safest way possible?” That same question should guide Florida lawmakers as they consider House Bill 1047 and Senate Bill 1122.
For patients in Broward County, especially children, expectant mothers, and families facing complex medical needs, the answer is clear. The Better Together partnership between our two public, safety-net hospital systems is not about consolidation or anti-competition. It is about access, equity, and ensuring that no patient is left behind because of insurance status or because their care is complex, resource-intensive, or long-term.
As a pediatric surgeon at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital/Memorial Healthcare System, it gives me a deep sense of purpose to care for any child in need regardless of insurance coverage. That is healthcare, not politics. Yet outdated geographic charters and regulatory barriers prevent physicians like me from practicing where patients need us most. Today, I am limited to serving only certain areas of the county, even when children elsewhere urgently need specialized care. That makes no sense for patients, and it makes even less sense in a county as large, diverse, and fast-growing as Broward.
The Better Together collaboration in Broward County would change that, and that is precisely why this legislation is needed. House Bill 1047 and Senate Bill 1122 allow collaboration to expand access to high-quality care where patients need it most. Nothing more.
Despite the misinformation surrounding this effort, the facts are straightforward. This legislation does not merge hospital systems. It does not raise taxes. It does not increase insurance premiums. It does not cost taxpayers a single additional dollar. What it does is remove outdated barriers so our two public hospitals – and the doctors, nurses, and clinical staff within them – can work together to expand access to high-quality care across Broward County.
These measures would expand access to healthcare across a full range of services, from behavioral health to maternity care. They open doors to healthier families, which means healthier women and healthier babies. Claims to the contrary are simply false.
The legislation allows our two public hospital systems to collaborate rather than compete, enabling doctors to move across the county, share expertise, and expand critical services such as cancer care, cardiology, and transplant care. These are not optional services; they are lifesaving and increasingly being abandoned because they are expensive and generate lower margins.
Public hospitals serve as the healthcare safety net for our communities. Every day, we care for patients who have nowhere else to go: children with cancer when specialized services disappear, patients in need of long-term cardiac and renal care, and mothers delivering babies after maternity wards close. This is the reality in Broward County, and it cannot be dismissed with political talking points.
Better Together would also strengthen our ability to respond in moments of crisis. Broward County knows hurricanes, mass-casualty events, and public health emergencies. In those moments, healthcare systems must be nimble. Doctors must be able to move quickly to where they are needed most. Artificial barriers that prevent collaboration slow response times and put lives at risk.
The opposition to Better Together has been loud and well-funded, but it has often relied on incomplete or misleading claims. Better Together remains focused on results. It is expanding access to care by opening new access points such as maternity services and freestanding emergency care, deploying mobile units to underserved neighborhoods, and investing in behavioral and maternal health. This is about meeting real needs, not engaging in political noise.
As lawmakers in Tallahassee evaluate this legislation, they have an opportunity to hear directly from the doctors, nurses, patients, and families who experience these challenges every day. Passing this legislation would allow Better Together to continue and expand for the patients and families who need it most.
Healthcare should never be about politics. It should be about doing what’s right: preventing illness, responding quickly in times of need, and caring for people when they are most vulnerable. It’s time to put patients first and pass the legislation that allows our public hospitals to do exactly that.
Dr. Holly Neville is a general and pediatric surgeon; associate chief medical officer at Memorial Healthcare System; chief of pediatric general and thoracic surgery at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital; and program director for the general surgery residency at Memorial Healthcare System.
JC
February 9, 2026 at 6:20 am
Well spoken, like a true member of the org that has wanted to eat the NBHD for years. *This* bill doesn’t merge districts, the *next* one will. Incremental creep is how government gets controversial things done.