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Grand Orwellian Party eliminates list, declares problem solved

I was all set to post something on the heartless and cynical “Kid Care” (“waiting list elimination”) bill that just passed the Florida Senate yesterday, but Herbert beat me to it:

I wrote a column back in January about the tens of thousands of youngsters from low-income families who were eligible for a children's health insurance program in Florida but, instead of being allowed into the program, were diverted by state officials to a long waiting list.

Even children with serious health problems were put on the list. Conni Wells, director of the Florida Institute for Family Involvement, which advises families on health matters, told me at the time, "We've had families tell us they've put off buying groceries so they can afford to take their child to the doctor."

The program is called KidCare. It's Florida's version of the nationally popular and successful Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, which covers families with incomes too low to pay for private health insurance but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid.

The attention given to the Florida waiting list by the news media embarrassed the state Republican Party, which controls the governorship and both houses of the State Legislature.

So here's the good news: The Legislature is expected to approve a measure that would end up providing coverage to about 90,000 of the 100,000 or so youngsters on the waiting list at the end of January.

The rest of the news is not good. Republican leaders in the Florida House and Senate have crafted the new legislation in ways that will radically limit future access to KidCare and prevent the press and the public from getting information about the number of kids who are frozen out.

At least we knew over the past several months that children were being put on a waiting list. Under the new legislation, eligible youngsters who are denied enrollment in KidCare will not be put on a waiting list. There won't be any waiting list.

Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which has been monitoring the developments in Florida, said, "Politically, what that means is that nobody — not us, not you, not anyone — would be able at any point to say that 30,000 or 50,000 or 80,000 or 100,000 kids are on the waiting list because there would no longer be any record of a waiting list."

At the same time, the enrollment process would be sharply curtailed. Under the new legislation, there would be only two 30-day periods each year in which parents would be allowed to try to enroll their children in KidCare. Worse, the state would not be required to actually conduct those two enrollment periods. State officials could simply declare, for budgetary reasons, that there would be no enrollment in a given year.

This is mean-spirited stuff. We are finding new and ingenious ways in this country to wreak havoc on low-income people.

Here are the headlines on this story from today’s Tampa area papers: The Tampa Tribune:

Senate OKs $25 Million To Cover KidCare Program and

The St. Petersburg Times:

Senate votes to reduce KidCare waiting list

A reader would have to read past the middle of both articles to realize that children might actually be hurt by this bill, and details are egregiously glossed over. The Times:

Republicans in control of the Legislature have been pressured for weeks to spend the money to eliminate much of KidCare's waiting list, which continues to grow and now exceeds 110,000 by some estimates. Official figures place the list at about 96,000, through Feb. 27.

So, reading The Times or The Tribune, one would almost certainly come away with the impression that those cuddly kid-loving Republicans in Tallahassee did something to help children, when in actuality they eliminated the existence of a list so that no one will ever know how many kids are in dire need of help. No list, no problem. An elegantly Orwellian solution.

Read some background on this issue.