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State Children’s Health Insurance Program

Phase 1 Effective Date: April 1, 1998

Revised: 1/26/98, 2/19/98, 3/3/98, 3/6/98 Phase 2 Effective Date: July 1, 1998

Revised: 8/20/98, 8/24/98, 10/1/99, 7/28/00, 1/31/01, 7/02/02, 7/22/02, 1/3/03, 2/13/04, 9/27/04, 11/15/04, 8/11/05, 10/1/06, 7/1/09, 7/1/10, 7/1/11, 7/1/12 11 distributed among all 67 Florida counties. These estimates were derived from the 1993 RAND survey and updated by population estimates from Florida’s Joint Legislative Management Committee, Division of Economic and Demographic Research, the 1997 Florida Statistical Abstract, and the Urban Institute’s State-Level Data Book on Health Care Access and Financing. Part of Florida’s high uninsurance rate can be attributed to the characteristics of the state’s business economy. Larger firms are more likely to offer health insurance as a benefit than small firms. More than 95 percent of Florida’s businesses employ fewer than 25 individuals. Health Insurance and Access to Care Access to health care is crucial to a child’s development. Children who have health insurance are more likely to receive preventive care — care that helps keep them in good health. Children who lack affordable access to a doctor are less likely to seek treatment for minor illnesses, suffering until the body heals itself or the condition becomes too severe for home treatments. For many children, the emergency room is their primary source of care. The Centers for Disease Control in 1991 reported that, for 13 percent of children ages 15 and under, hospital outpatient departments were their primary contact for health care services. Another study found that uninsured children under the age of 19 are eight times more likely to receive care in an emergency room than children with insurance. This type of care is devastating to the child. The severe outcomes of these medical conditions reduce the child’s ability to attend school and participate in the activities of a normal childhood. The costs associated with this level of care are not limited to the child, but affect the community as a whole. Emergency room services are expensive, especially when they are used to treat illnesses that could have been prevented by an earlier visit to a physician. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, lack of health care coverage is an important factor in the delay of seeking preventive and acute care. Children with health insurance are more likely to be fully immunized, have more preventive care visits, fewer physician office visits for illnesses and fewer emergency room visits. For children with a regular source of care, total health care costs are lowered by 25%. Prior to the inception of Florida KidCare, the structure of health insurance programs left more than 823,000 Florida children uninsured. This problem was partly a result of the system of employment-based health insurance. Although no single approach can solve the problems, Title XXI funding for the Florida KidCare program significantly reduced the number of uninsured children. The Institute for Child Health Policy released their Statewide Children’s Health