Deadlines for implementing parts of the federal Affordable Health Care Act are approaching. But Florida’s state health care agency is refusing a meeting with pediatricians to discuss how the new federal mandates will affect children’s health care.
In a statement, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration says it won’t meet with the Florida Pediatric Society because of the group’s ongoing lawsuit against it.
But Pediatric Society Executive Vice President, Dr. Louis St. Petery says, the two groups have met before, even since the lawsuit was filed. He says, the refusal seems more closely tied to Fla. Gov. Rick Scott saying the state won’t comply with the federal health care law. It was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
“We’re very concerned that the state chooses not to meet with those of us who have expertise in that area and to implement those portions which were declared constitutional," he said.
The pediatricians’ suit, filed in 2005, claims poor children do not have proper access to Medicaid. And, St. Petery says, parts of the Affordable Care Act should help fix that problem.