December 17, 2014
By Daniel Chang,
A bipartisan group of governors from 39 states is supporting extended federal funding of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which covers more than 8 million kids and their families nationwide, including about 400,000 children in Florida. But Gov. Rick Scott has not joined the chorus.
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Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said Scott’s silence on the issue betrays the legacy of past Florida governors who championed children’s health — principally, former Gov. Lawton Chiles, who in 1991 authorized the creation of the Healthy Start program to offer universal risk screening of pregnant women and newborns.
Chiles later built on that program with the Florida Kidcare Act of 1998, which expanded healthcare coverage to more than 250,000 Florida children by using federal funding for CHIP. Congress had enacted the program in 1997.
“It is very surprising and disappointing that Governor Scott would not respond to a bipartisan congressional request for his views on CHIP,” Alker said.
“Florida’s children have more at stake in this debate than the vast majority of states — 400,000 children over the course of a year could lose health coverage and become uninsured,” she said. “And there are significant federal dollars for the state at issue.’’
Should Congress not reauthorize funding for CHIP, Alker said, the state could lose about $495 million to $560 million in federal funds.
