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Wire servicesThe bill would get 90,280 kids off of the health insurance program's lengthy waiting list. The House votes on it today.
TALLAHASSEE - More than 90,000 children whose families are waiting for state-subsidized health insurance would get it under a bill passed Thursday by the Senate.
The measure now goes to the House, where it is also expected to gain easy passage today.
The measure, which passed 25-14 following party lines, provides $25-million to get insurance for the 90,280 children who were on the KidCare program's waiting list by Jan. 30. The program helps low-income families buy cheap health insurance.
Spending now to expand the program is broadly popular, but the bill has a lengthy list of opponents who don't like another part that seeks to make it harder for future applicants to get the insurance.
That part of the bill could cut as many as 20,000 children currently eligible out of the program.
Republicans in control of the Legislature have been pressured for weeks to spend the money to eliminate much of KidCare's waiting list, which continues to grow and now exceeds 110,000 by some estimates. Official figures place the list at about 96,000, through Feb. 27.
Helping children get into the program is an easy choice, Republican senators said before the vote.
"How can you be against that?" said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.
But Democrats - and some children's advocates - opposed the bill (SB 2000) because of proposed eligibility changes meant to shore up the program's financial viability in the long run.
A number of Republicans say too many families not intended to be in KidCare are getting coverage through the program.
Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, asked her colleagues to separate the money in the bill from eligibility changes the bill also would require.
The main eligibility change would make some families who have access to health insurance through their employers ineligible for KidCare. Republicans say it was never intended to cover those people, only those who had no other access.
Democrats say many of those health plans aren't affordable and some don't cover things like immunization or child well care.
The bill says if it would cost more than 5 percent of the family's income to use their employer's insurance, they'd still be eligible for KidCare. The measure also has more stringent income-proof requirements for applicants.
The bills would spend $6.5-million in state money and $18.7-million in federal money and parents' copayments to eliminate the waiting list through June 30.
Legislators would have to separately appropriate money for future years, but the amount needed is expected to be less because of the proposed eligibility changes.