Freeze on Enrollment in Florida’s KidCare Program Shows ‘Unnecessary Tightfistedness,’ Columnist Says

In July, Florida froze enrollment in the state's "badly needed" KidCare program, which includes three health coverage options for children, in "an episode of embarrassing and unnecessary tightfistedness" that has led to the placement of 60,000 to 70,000 Florida children on waiting lists for health care, columnist Bob Herbert writes in a New York Times opinion piece. State budget concerns prompted the freeze, but the federal government has given the state $400 million in increased Medicaid matching funds and more than $500 million in a fiscal relief grant since July, Herbert writes, adding that the cost of health coverage for the "tens of thousands of youngsters" on the KidCare waiting list is estimated at $23 million for the remainder of this fiscal year. While some of the federal funds the state has received could be used to end the waiting list, "Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and the Florida Legislature have not been willing to take that step," perhaps because the parents of children on the waiting list "do not have much political clout and may not even vote," Herbert writes. Gov. Bush's spokesperson, Jacob DiPietre, said "no immediate action is planned" to provide coverage to the children on waiting lists, according to Herbert (Herbert, New York Times, 1/12).