Florida To Increase Enrollment In KidCare Health Insurance Program

KidCare Health Insurance Program

Florida state agencies will circulate applications and information about enrolling in KidCare at community events and school-related activities in an effort to enroll more qualified children in the program, the AP/Florida Times-Union reports. KidCare is Florida's version of SCHIP (AP/Florida Times-Union,8/8). During the last legislative session, lawmakers allocated anadditional $18 million to the program to increase enrollment by 33,000children. An estimated 500,000 children in the state are eligible butnot enrolled in the program (Price, Tallahassee Democrat, 8/9).

FloridaCFO Alex Sink said she hopes the enrollment campaign leads to fillingempty slots in the program. She added that the state Legislature couldbe asked to increase funding for the program in 2008 if more childrenapply than can be accommodated, the AP/Times-Union reports (AP/Florida Times-Union, 8/8). According to the Democrat, the Legislature is set to discuss budget cuts in September, but KidCare officials hope the program will not be affected (Tallahassee Democrat, 8/9).

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