News Service of Florida
By: Christine Sexton
While Florida has made strides in reducing the number of uninsured children, a national health-care expert warned Thursday that those gains are likely stalling, and she put part of the blame on increased scrutiny of immigration status.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Children and Families, said data released late last month by the National Center on Health Statistics shows that the number of uninsured children in Florida in 2017 rose slightly to 7.6 percent. Alker said that while the small rise — from 7.4 percent the previous year — may be statistically insignificant, it could be “an early warning sign” that Florida’s seven-year trend of lowering uninsured rates for children is at risk. She attributed the increase in part to attrition of what she called “mixed” families, or families where a parent is an immigrant and the child is either a citizen or legally residing in the state.
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