Instead of covering uninsured children, Republican leaders want to cover up the problem. Their plan to chuck the Healthy Kids waiting list - by eliminating the numbers, not the need - is a cynical ploy that stands to benefit state politicians, not Florida's kids.
Under the proposal, outlined this week by Senate President Jim King, the state would no longer maintain a waiting list for Healthy Kids, the public/private program that offers health coverage to children in families too well off to be eligible for Medicaid but too poor to afford private insurance. Eligible children who are shut out of the program would have to try their luck every six months, with little assurance they'd get in - and no record kept by the state if they don't.
"What we don't want is that pressure of lists building and building and building with the false hope that these kids are going to get state help if they can't," King told the St. Petersburg Times editorial board Monday.
Translation: Our elected leaders don't want that pressure building against them, as it has been for months. The pressure started mounting last July, when the Republican-led Legislature capped enrollment in the program. Since then, Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican lawmakers have ignored opportunities to relieve the pressure and pare the waiting list, now at more than 100,000 kids.
Though the leaders say they intend to address the problem this session, other changes they proposed this week - such as shutting out parents whose employers offer coverage, even if it is unaffordable - cast doubt on how far their money and sincerity will stretch.
Failing to keep track of kids who have been turned away may be politically expedient, but it deprives lawmakers of key budgetary information on state needs and the allocation of funds. It also deprives voters of a job-performance measure they can take to the polls - which appears to be the plan's goal. Florida's uninsured children need leaders who will stick their necks out to do what's right, not bury their heads in the sand.
