Report: Working FL Families Would Benefit From Medicaid Expansion
Posted April 16, 2015 06:55 am
TALLAHASSEE,
FL - Florida ranks 49th in the country when it comes to
the rate of uninsured parents, and a majority of them
are employed. That's according to a report released this
week by Kids Well Florida and the Georgetown University
Center for Children and Families.
The Florida Legislature is currently debating a proposal
to expand Medicaid to more than 1 million low income
citizens. Leah Barber-Heinz, CEO with Florida CHAIN,
says the legislature has the power to initiate change.
"The Florida Legislature has a very unique opportunity
to make sure parents and families and children,
especially working families, are able to access the
health care coverage they desperately need," says
Barber-Heinz.
Florida is one of 22 states that elected not to accept
federal funding under the Affordable Care Act to extend
Medicaid coverage to parents and other low income
adults. That's left more than a million Floridians
excluded from coverage.
Joan
Alker, executive director with the Georgetown University
Center, says it's important to note many Florida parents
who lack health coverage have jobs.
"People often assume if you have a job, you have health
insurance but that's just not the case for many of
Florida's working families, and that really relates to
the structure of Florida's economy," says Alker. "Most
of the uninsured parents that could benefit are working
in jobs that support Florida's service-based
tourist-dependent economy."
According to the report, children eligible for Medicaid
coverage or who have parents eligible for Medicaid
coverage are more likely to be healthier, graduate from
college and succeed financially, which in turn leads to
more savings for taxpayers. Barber-Heinz says the time
to act is now.
"It's extremely important this happens as soon as
possible," she says. "We know people are really
struggling out there without health care coverage and we
know when people don't have access to health care they
often end up in the emergency room, which is extremely
expensive for all of us."
The report also finds when parents are insured, their
children are more likely to have health coverage. In
Florida an estimated 305,000 children are eligible for
Medicaid-CHIP but are not enrolled.
Photos/graphics; links: added/updated by the Observer
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