Florida bill would make doctors, health centers post prices

Restaurants have menus, retailers have pricetags and soon, Florida doctors could have price boards.

Legislation in Tallahassee would force doctors and some medical care centers to post signs of about 3-feet-by-5-feet in their waiting rooms showing the prices to be charged a person paying out of pocket. Charges for the insured vary by policy and wouldn’t be posted.

“The cost of health care is a big mystery. Nobody knows how much health care costs. We need some clarity,” said Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Trinity, the sponsor of one of the bills. “When consumers are price-conscious, they shop around, and there’s competition. That lowers costs and gives better quality.”

More GYNs opening minds, offices to transgender patients

Like many in his community, S.F. Makalani-MaHee spent a lifetime avoiding doctors — particularly the gynecologist, a physician who specializes on an area of the body that has always felt foreign to him.

Born a female but identifying as a man, the Fort Lauderdale community activist dreams of having surgery to complete a transition fulfilled in every other way but one: He still has a woman’s genitalia. Changing that would mean going to the doctor and risking the very experiences he has long dreaded: ugly incidents that experts and studies say are all too common for the transgender community.