445,000 FL Children Uninsured
Posted November 06, 2014 07:50 am
TALLAHASEE,
FL– The Sunshine State is anything but for more than
445,000 children who do not have health insurance.
A
new report released today by the Georgetown Center
for Children and Families in Washington ranks the state
fifth in the country when it comes to its high rate of
uninsured children.
Karen Woodall, executive director of the Florida Center
for Fiscal and Economic Policy, says one reason the rate
is high is the fact Florida lawmakers chose not to waive
the five-year waiting period for legally documented
immigrant children to receive coverage through the
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), as 20 other
states have.
"Changing
that and allowing these children who are living in the
state, who have followed the rules and are documented,
but they are waiting for five years to gain access to
this program," she says.
Nationwide, four of the 20 counties with the highest
percentage of uninsured children are located in Florida,
including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange.
Nationwide, 5.2 million children lack insurance. Half of those children reside in six states, including Florida and neighboring Georgia.
The number of uninsured children in Florida did decrease by a little more than 30,000 from 2011 to 2013.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families and the report's author, says the availability of existing programs also makes a big difference.
"We also see states that haven't perhaps made as
aggressive policy choices as other states in extending
eligibility for their CHIP programs, and trying to
reduce barriers to enrollment, and that's key for kids
and their parents," she points out.
In the last five years, nationwide, the number of
uninsured children declined by 1.7 million, thanks in
part to Medicaid and CHIP.
Next year, Congress will be voting on funding for CHIP,
and Alker says a lot is riding on the outcome of that
debate.
"I'm certainly guardedly optimistic that CHIP will be
funded next year," she says. "On the other hand, we do
have a certain amount of difficulties in coming to
agreement on anything. So, I hope that CHIP doesn't get
caught up in that."
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than
760,000 Floridians would be covered if lawmakers chose
to expand Medicaid.
Photos/graphics and links added by the Observer | Photo of little girl: Kids Well Florida; Charts: Georgetown Univ. Health Policy Institute
This piece was reprinted by the Columbia County Observer with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.