Governor vetoes wrongful death legislation

‘In my judgment, it would lead to higher costs for Floridians, it would lead to less access to care for Floridians’

May 30, 2025 By Jim Ash

With a health-care executive and a medical malpractice defense attorney cheering him on, Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared Thursday in Southwest Florida to announce his veto of HB 6017.

The measure would have repealed a 30-year-old provision of Florida’s Wrongful Death Act that makes survivors of adult children and their parents ineligible for non-economic damages in medical negligence claims.

“In my judgment, it would lead to higher costs for Floridians, it would lead to less access to care for Floridians,” DeSantis said. “We need more as it is now, the state is growing, it’s not shrinking.”

Lawmakers carved out the exception in 1990 when they expanded the Wrongful Death Act, saying the provision was needed to address rising medical malpractice rates.

Bill sponsors say the provision unfairly denied plaintiffs access to justice, and a repeal is necessary to hold dangerous practitioners accountable.

Senate Judiciary Chair Clay Yarborough, a Republican and Jacksonville business development executive, sponsored the Senate companion.

“I filed SB 734 because the current exceptions in 768.218 are unjust and prevent accountability,” Yarborough told a Senate committee in March.

DeSantis suggested that he would have supported repealing the provision if lawmakers had agreed to cap damages. He noted that an amendment to do just that failed by a single vote in the Senate.

“They were one vote away from doing something that was a little bit more [palatable] for people,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis shared the spotlight with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lapado, Lee Health Systems President and CEO Dr. Lawrence Antonucci, and Andy Bolin, a board-certified civil litigator and former president of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association.

Critics of the bill told lawmakers that Florida doctors pay the highest medical malpractice rates in the country.

Antonucci, an obstetrician and gynecologist, said the bill would have increased health care costs for everyone.

“It’s focused on legality, it’s focused on finances, but it’s not focused on the patient,” Antonucci said.

Bolin said the physicians he represents are being targeted by meritless lawsuits.

“Florida has become a place, because of litigation, that is unfriendly to the healthcare arena,” he said. “Just because there’s a negative outcome, doesn’t mean there’s malpractice.”

Bolin acknowledged that malpractice exists, but he said better professional regulation is the answer.

“My clients aren’t interested in seeing bad doctors protected,” he said.

Bolin said March of Dimes reports show that entire counties in Florida lack obstetricians or birthing centers.

“The access to care issue is not something that’s theoretical,” he said.