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South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Number of uninsured children climbs in Florida
By Kelli Kennedy

The Associated Press

10:50 AM EST, November 28, 2008

MIAMI

Nearly 19 percent or 797,000 children in Florida do not have health insurance — the second highest percentage in the country — and experts expect the number to rise as more parents are laid off, according to a report released this week. The number may also rise as employers increase insurance costs, the report said.

More troubling, the study was conducted between 2005 and 2007 and does not reflect this year’s financial woes.

Families USA, a nonprofit health advocacy group, estimates the actual number of uninsured children in the country right now is far greater than the 8.6 million reported in 2007.

Only Texas had a higher percentage of uninsured children with 20.5 percent.

In Florida, health care advocates point to a large number of low-paying tourism related jobs and the troubled KidCare program, once seen as a national model, which has since struggled with red tape and few marketing dollars.

“The state has failed to cover as many kids as they can with the resources they have,” said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida CHAIN, a health care advocacy group.

Only 233,000 Florida children are enrolled in subsidized programs like KidCare, even though about 310,000 spots are funded, she said. A majority of uninsured children in Florida are eligible for subsidized programs because their families have incomes below twice the poverty level.

The number of uninsured children in Florida has increased nearly 11 percent since 2003, though most of those children have at least one parent working full time. In the Sunshine State, where many jobs are come from the travel and tourism industry, some employers can’t afford to offer health care, experts say.

One bright spot in the state: Lawmakers made room in their tight budget and agreed to spend $13.4 million to cover an additional 38,000 children under the program.

The Families USA report comes at the same time as news that thousands of Florida children were disenrolled from KidCare in the past few months due to a glitch in the system.

Over the past few months, thousands of Florida children have been disenrolled by mistake because a new company that handles KidCare paperwork has had difficulty in the transition.

The agency says they will stop disenrolling kids until the problems are fixed and that children disenrolled by mistake will be covered again. In the meantime, many children were left with weekslong gaps in their coverage.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush was widely criticized a few years ago when he made it more difficult for children to enroll, requiring parents to resubmit paperwork more often to prove they were eligible. Some of those restrictions have eased a bit.

“There was a long waiting list of children who were clearly eligible for participating but they were put on a waiting list. That’s the kind of action that inhibits meaningful enrollment in the program,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA.

Only a couple other states created similar red tape, he said. “Florida was most notorious.”

Pollack says the number of uninsured children will also increase nationally as cash-strapped states make budget cuts; and because President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That program is set to expire in March 2009, though President-elect Barack Obama has said he would expand such programs and require all children to have health coverage.

Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Health insurance rates going up for U.S. workers
By THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
November 26, 2008 6:00 AM
ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. workers who get health insurance through their employer can expect to shoulder more of the ever-growing financial burden again next year.

Many employees are in the midst of reviewing their 2009 medical options during their company’s annual “open enrollment” period. Most will be contributing more to cover a larger premium, paying greater out-of-pocket costs and directing more of their own care. A growing number may even be switching to cheaper, “catastrophic” coverage.

“Increasingly, employees are willing to accept decreased benefits and therefore decreased contributions,” said Fritz Hewelt, a vice president and employee-benefits expert with Aon Consulting Worldwide. For many workers, that means letting go of the conventional health-maintenance organizations or preferred-provider plans that allow them almost unlimited access to doctors, with small co-payments for office visits and prescriptions.

“In a lot of cases, you’re going to see a high-deductible health plan with either an HSA (health savings account) or HRA (health reimbursement account),” said Gayle Schreppel, director of claims for Longwood, Fla.-based Preferred Benefit Administrators.

This year, about 46 percent of all employers with medical coverage offered some sort of account-based health plan, said Ken Watson, a Tampa, Fla.-based senior consultant for Towers Perrin. Next year, according to preliminary surveys, more than 50 percent of companies are likely to include such a plan.

The savings accounts, in particular, are part of a larger bid by some U.S. employers to shave their health-insurance costs.

Nationwide, Hewitt expects costs next year to rise 6.4 percent, from $8,331 for the average employee this year to $8,863 in 2009.

But that’s also up sharply from $4,914 per employee as recently as 2002.

By combining an HSA with a high-deductible health policy, employers can reduce their insurance premiums and give themselves another way of sharing the cost of medical care with their work forces.

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Summit Seeks Solutions To Care For The Uninsured
By CARL ORTH

The Suncoast News

Tell me where it hurts, Marc Yacht is asking the Pasco community.

The retired director of the Pasco County Health Department led a recent health care summit attended by 75 representatives from 40 local agencies. The focus of the summit was people without health care insurance.

The turbulent economy is prompting more and more people with limited financial means to seek aid, Yacht said.

“Resources are going to be difficult to come by,” Yacht said in a telephone interview after the conference. As a result, agencies are trying to figure out ways to pool assets toward dispensing more effective help, he said.

“The list is long,” Yacht said about attendees from all local hospitals, the health department, homeless coalitions, domestic violence shelters, Salvation Army and many other agencies.

Often, people without medical insurance utilize hospital emergency rooms almost as a substitute for a primary care doctor, Yacht observed.

“It jams the emergency rooms,” Yacht said. “We need to try to find a medical home for people who need a primary care doctor.”

“This looks at the larger picture” for people without medical insurance, Yacht said about the summit.

Indigent people are worried about paying the rent or electric bill when a medical crisis strikes, Yacht said. Perhaps a network of local agencies can point them to the place that can help. A person might qualify for aid through SSI, for instance, or be eligible for help to pay the utility bill.

The health summit ties in with the Primary Care Access Network project forged by state Sen. Mike Fasano, Yacht noted. A regional hurricane shelter in the works will double as a PCAN health care center.

Fasano, R-New Port Richey, gave the lunchtime keynote speech during the daylong conference. A snapshot of Florida’s uninsured population is “quite eye-opening,” said Fasano, now the Senate’s president pro tempore.

Snapshot Of The Uninsured

About 3.6 million of Florida’s 18 million people do without medical insurance coverage, Fasano noted, adding, “Sadly, 548,000 of the uninsured are children.”

More than 60 percent of the people without medical insurance are employed, Fasano underscored.

“Even though they have jobs, health insurance has become too costly for them to purchase and they often make a little too much to qualify for Medicaid,” Fasano said of these “working uninsured.”

The state-managed Medicaid program, which is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, already consumes 20 percent of Florida’s budget, according to Fasano.

“Were it not for Medicaid, though, the issue of the uninsured would be even worse than it currently is,” Fasano said. “Without Medicaid, more than half the women giving birth in Florida would be without a regular source of prenatal care.”

In fact, Medicaid paid for almost 53 percent of all deliveries in Florida in 2006, Fasano said.

Under the existing health care system, emergency rooms often double as the primary health care provider for the uninsured, underinsured and those who have little or no access to primary care providers, according to Fasano.

In 2007, 71 percent of the services delivered in emergency departments were classified as nonemergencies, he said.

Demographics play a role, since Florida has a higher percentage of older people who might wind up needing nursing home care, home health care and other specialized help, Fasano noted.

“Currently with the economy souring we are seeing Medicaid enrollment soar,” Fasano said.

Alternatives For Care

Among alternatives, Fasano recalled his legislation in 2007 to extend the hours to nights and weekends at existing PCAN clinics in Pasco and four other counties. Nonurgent ER visits have dropped by nearly one-third in areas with a PCAN clinic.

The pilot program in the five counties cost $3.5 million. The PCAN clinics reported more than half of the visits to the clinic during nights and weekends during a three-month period last year were by uninsured people. That meant 3,122 fewer visits to emergency rooms for routine care.

The new Cover Florida Health Care Access Program, which was championed by Gov. Charlie Crist, is another part of the puzzle, Fasano said. Cover Florida partners with private insurance companies to foster competitive bidding on innovative health insurance products.

The Cover Florida plan will change the way those roughly 3.6 million uninsured Floridians perceive health care and their ability to prioritize their health needs by obtaining reasonably priced coverage, Fasano said.

Each health plan offers consumers two types of coverage options, one with catastrophic and hospital coverage, and one without.

For an average of $150 per month, Cover Florida benefits will include regular medical check-ups. Coverage typically might cover preventive services, screenings, office visits, outpatient and inpatient surgery, urgent care, prescription drugs, durable medical equipment and diabetic supplies.

In addition, Florida KidCare offers coverage for children, regardless of income. Parents who do not meet the income qualifications to receive the free or discounted KidCare services can now pay the full premium, which is still a bargain at around $120 a month, Fasano said.

“We are optimistic that new products will be available to consumers by the first of next year and that this will bring us one step closer in addressing the needs of the uninsured,” Fasano said.

A tight state budget next year could challenge lawmakers, Fasano said.

“True leadership is evident not only when the state’s coffers are full, but also when tough decisions must be made.”

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To learn more about Florida group health insurance, Tampa group health insurance, Sarasota group health insurance, Miami group health insurance, or Orlando group health insurance, visit Grouphealthflorida.com or call 1-800-873-5713.

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