Increasing Number of Uninsured Strains South Florida’s Safety Net

A South Florida Sun-Sentinel feature story on May 7 examines South Florida's "sophisticated network" of tax-subsidized hospitals and clinics that provide care for the region's 900,000 uninsured people. A 2000 study by James Studnicki, a professor of public health at the University of South Florida, indicates that the system "keeps people healthier" than those in other parts of the state and has lower rates of death and "serious" illness. However, the Sun-Sentinel notes that the network has "holes big enough for tens of thousands of people to fall through." Groups that sometimes go without care include low- and middle-income residents who experience serious illnesses, low-income workers who are not aware of services available to them, Spanish-speaking people who encounter language barriers and immigrants who avoid public health care because they incorrectly believe using such services would adversely affect their immigration status. Florida's Medicaid program creates another "gap" by covering children in families with annual incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level, or $27,150 for a family of four, but not the adults unless they are elderly or disabled. Meanwhile, fewer people are purchasing private insurance due to rising premiums, many doctors have stopped seeing indigent patients, private hospitals object that they do not receive compensation for providing charity care and public hospitals that do receive reimbursement for providing indigent care say it is not enough. In 2000, South Florida hospitals estimated that they provided uncompensated care totaling $1.6 billion; officials expect that figure to reach $2 billion this year (LaMendola, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 5/7).