Florida’s quality of life has been attracting new residents here for decades. Critical to a high quality of life is the health of our family, friends and neighbors. In fact, Florida spends more than a third of its $100 billion budget each year on efforts to improve the health of its citizens.

Even with this level of spending — and billions more from the private sector — more than 1 in 3 Floridians live in an area that has a significant shortage of primary care clinicians. In fact, Florida’s shortage is seventh worst in the nation, with nearly a quarter of adults reporting that they do not have a primary care provider.

It’s long been proven that a personal relationship with a doctor leads to far healthier lives. Patients are more likely to be diagnosed and treated for chronic conditions sooner and get the preventative care they need to avoid sickness altogether.

Not only is this a humanitarian issue, impacting the quality of life for these Floridians and their families, but it’s an economic one as well. Addressing illness or chronic conditions that might not have required hospitalization if better managed through primary care costs Floridians $3.5 billion each year.

Now for the good news. It’s not too late to change these outcomes and increase access to primary care in all areas of the state. The Florida Council of 100 has released a set of recommendations that will set Florida on a path to address this problem.

Among these recommendations is the need to expand the number of clinicians in underserved areas by incenting them to be there. Medical school loan repayment has proven effective for this, and those clinicians who benefit have been shown to continue helping low-income patients long after their loans are repaid. Since 2012, only six Florida clinicians who fulfilled their federal loan repayment requirements left to practice in another state — this from a program that had 129 participants in 2019 alone.

Thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders, Florida started its own loan repayment program last year, and we’re encouraged to see that the Florida Senate has proposed a significant increase in funding for the already severely oversubscribed initiative.

Access in underserved areas must also be improved. We need to expand Community Health Centers, which serve Floridians where they live, work, and worship — regardless of their ability to pay. Equally important is raising awareness of those centers to let Floridians know that local resources are available to help them live longer, healthier lives.

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Florida is a great place to live, work and raise a family. That means we are going to keep attracting our friends from around the country as new neighbors. This growth will continue to put pressure on our health care system, which today isn’t addressing the state’s needs. Let’s take the challenge on, provide more and better access to local, primary care and continue our legacy of providing the best quality of life in America.

Pat Geraghty is president & CEO of GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation and Florida Blue. John Couris is president and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center-Tampa General Hospital.