Politico
By: Christine Sexton
Joan Alker, Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families’ executive director, was mentioned, as she commented on a computer glitch or ‘snafu’ eligibility system error that has impacted Florida’s children healthcare.
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A computer glitch that affected the insurance status of as many as 102,000 Florida children has bewildered health care experts and left child welfare advocates wondering why the state hasn’t levied fines against the vendor responsible for the mistake. Center for Children and Families Executive Director Joan Alker called the 18-month disconnect between computer systems at the Department of Children and Families and the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation a “serious snafu.”
“Why were the kids getting lost between the programs if eligibility processes were integrated?” Alker told POLITICO Florida in an email. She added that neither she nor staff at Center for Children and Family eligibility and enrollment “has heard of this kind of serious snafu happening in other states.”
Florida continues to grapple with high uninsured rates for children. A Georgetown University Health Policy Institute report released last year shows there were an estimated 378,000 uninsured children in Florida in 2014, or nearly one in 10.
“Their family’s income would have had to increase a lot – in many cases doubling,” Alker said of children switching from Medicaid to the exchange. “Also those children could run into a barrier known as the “family glitch” which prevents some family members from accessing tax credits that are designed to make the exchange coverage affordable.
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