With Budget Increase, Florida County to Enroll Children on Waiting List for Healthy Kids

The Juvenile Welfare Board in Florida's Pinellas County has agreed to allocate $213,000 to Healthy Kids, the state's CHIP program, eliminating a waiting list of nearly 1,900 children, the St. Petersburg Times reports. Healthy Kids, a quasi-governmental initiative, covers more than 168,000 Florida children, nearly 6,000 of whom reside in Pinellas County. Parents contribute monthly premiums of $15 per child and copays of $3 to $5 per office visit, the Times reports. Thirty-five of the state's 67 counties contribute a varying "local match" to the program. However, "few [other counties] have to pay the 20% match shouldered by Pinellas," and still other counties do not have a local match requirement at all (Krueger, St. Petersburg Times, 3/9). Pinellas had been the only county of the 35 required to provide a local match that had not come up with the complete amount. While the state had continued to cover the 5,903 Pinellas County children already enrolled in the Healthy Kids program, children who had sought enrollment since July 1 were placed on a waiting list (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/8). Although the board in the past had provided matching funds to launch Healthy Kids, it has "several objections to the financing of the program" and emphasized that it was "not taking on the role of permanent financier." Board Executive Director James Mills said the board "still has long term objections to taking on the burden but decided it should help the children who needed care," the Times reports. Some board members said the local Healthy Kids organization did not "aggressively" seek funding sources other than the board, but Elizabeth Rugg, executive director of Suncoast Health Council, the local fiscal agent for Healthy Kids, said the program "has worked hard to raise money, but it's a tough sell" (Krueger, St. Petersburg Times, 3/9).