Roadblocks to health persist for kids in FL
By Eric Tegethoff, Florida News Connection
Health insurance prospects for Florida kids are not improving, despite pushes to increase coverage rates in the state.
Florida continues to deny and unenroll children from programs meant for low-income families – despite a federal law prohibiting states from canceling insurance for kids, even if families don’t pay the premium over a 12-month period.
The Executive Director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, Joan Alker, said this is part of a pattern for Florida.
“Unfortunately,” said Alker, “the state is distinguishing itself these days with being one of the most hostile states in the country, if not the most hostile state, to the notion that children should have access to health insurance.”
Florida challenged the continuous coverage law, but a federal judge dismissed the case in May. The state had argued that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid went too far with the law.
The state has also denied coverage in other ways.
During the Medicaid unwinding in 2023, when COVID-related coverage protections were lifted, Florida saw the second-largest decline in the number of children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program – at a drop of nearly 600,000.
The state’s coverage program for families that don’t qualify for Medicaid is called KidCare.
During the Medicaid unwinding period, families struggled. Mandi Rokx’s two kids were kicked off Medicaid during the unwinding, and she said it took six months to get them coverage from KidCare.
“I tried calling the Department of Children and Families, and I tried calling the health care provider that they were with previously,” said Rokx. “And nobody could give me any answers. And it was kind of one those things where when I would finally get a human being on the phone, I was told that they couldn’t do anything for me. And I spent literal hours on phone calls, which is not easy when you have toddlers.”
Alker said Florida has a unique built-in gap in coverage for families who have to switch from Medicaid to KidCare.
“This is truly terrible,” said Alker. “You do not want a baby to be uninsured. You do not want any child to have a gap in coverage. It doesn’t matter how long it is – things happen to kids all the time. Parents know this.”