proposed tax increase<\/a>, County Mayor Mark Bogen says the program may not survive.<\/p>\n\u201cRather than waiting till it\u2019s stage 4 or waiting until you get a heart attack, we now have a way to try to catch it before it really can kill you,\u201d Bogen said.<\/p>\n
Bogen lost his mother to a heart attack.<\/p>\n
He learned about a test \u2015 essentially, a CT scan of the heart done on a machine. He said the county is the first nationwide to offer the test for free, even if patients have no symptoms.<\/p>\n
It is recommended for those over 45 with conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure or a family history of heart disease.<\/p>\n
Bogen says the county has scanned 7,000 people. More than half \u2014 4,000 \u2014 ended up needing medical care.<\/p>\n
The program is run by Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital.<\/p>\n
Alex Espinosa, the hospital\u2019s chief operating officer, said many patients needing care have been \u201casymptomatic, didn\u2019t have any idea they had heart disease, relatively healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espinosa remembers having a heart attack right in the hospital\u2019s parking lot, even though other heart tests did not show any problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was coming to work and I collapsed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He believes if he had this scan, he could have prevented his heart attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may have found it and said, \u2018Be proactive instead of reactive,\u2019\u201d Espinosa said.<\/p>\n
If passed, the sales tax, currently 7%, would rise a quarter-percent to 7.25% for the next five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not on your groceries, it\u2019s not on your medication, it\u2019s not on your insurance, it\u2019s not on your water bills, there\u2019s so many things, it\u2019s not on for people in their day to day living,\u201d Bogen said.<\/p>\n
Still, some doctors do not think the test is necessary. A county auditor review found testing people with no symptoms is \u201cnot universally accepted in the medical community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The review also found the test is rarely used unless the patient has greater risk. <\/p>\n
Espinosa, though, thinks things are changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s coming. I think we\u2019re getting there,\u201d he said. \u201cI think giving it visibility and understanding the effects it has on the population from preventing heart disease, I think it\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program also covers cancer testing and primary and preventive healthcare for some people.<\/p>\n
Voters head to the polls on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAVIE, Fla. \u2014 This November, Broward County voters will decide whether to pay a higher sales tax \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-383933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}