Providing Affordable Healthcare
As a healthcare provider, Dr. Steve Perman sees his patients struggle with certain types of insurance. He would like to mandate health plans to reimburse any health care provider willing to provide services under the terms of their insurance policy.

Far too many Floridians are one serious accident/illness away from financial ruin because they can’t afford health insurance. Steve is fully engaged in the Health Reform activities occurring on a national level and wants to bring his expertise to the task of providing better, more affordable care for all Floridians.

For those lucky enough to obtain health insurance, they realize managed care is a failed system. Patients can’t get necessary access to their providers; and providers are limited to what the plans allow them to offer rather than what may actually be best for the patient.

We need to improve premium costs by creating more competition between carriers. Oversight and transparency of the relationship between premiums collected and benefits paid will help.

Dr. Perman also wants to put the “health” back into healthcare. He wants insurance companies to offer premium incentives for people to exercise regularly lose weight and stop smoking. These lifestyle changes would save a lot of lives as well as insurance dollars in the long run.


Solving the Homeowner’s Crisis
We are in the midst of a “perfect storm” of declining home values, questionable lending practices that have resulted in a record number of defaults and foreclosures, a weak dollar and escalating cost of daily consumables. We must rescue the middle class in Florida and stimulate homeownership, jobs and consumer confidence. 

A good state investment would be to look into offering grants or low interest government subsidized loans to homebuyers. First responders, teachers, nurses and other important industries would likely have facilitated access to these programs to fill professional shortages. 

Currently, with the sky-rocketing cost of food, fuels, health and property insurances, etc., the middle class is being squeezed like never before. Relief in these areas is imperative. One key step is to explore alternatives to fossil fuels including solar, wind and cellulosic fuels. 

Another fast-growing portion of our household budgets is homeowners insurance. On one hand, Floridians are faced with companies that refuse to write policies in our state. On the other hand, there are companies writing policies in our state that double and triple our rates. 

Promoting Going Green
Florida’s natural resources, including its beaches, wetlands and wildlife have been attracting tourists, sportsmen and new residents for nearly a century. Currently, our economy depends on it.  Expansion of green technologies will have the added benefit of creating new jobs in many related industries. This includes responsible development of infrastructure.

It is our great responsibility to preserve, and if possible, restore any damage done as a result of our use of these lands. Dr. Perman supports incentivizing, through tax abatement or a rebate/reimbursement system, the use of cleaner, environmentally friendly “green” technologies in construction and energy use.