By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-981377.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Florida's health insurance program for kids is encouraging parents to enroll their children in time for the upcoming school year. Lynn Hatter reports the program is holding a back-to-school drive to reach out to uninsured families.
Florida KidCare provides low-cost health insurance for uninsured children. The premiums are subsidized for low-income families, with some paying nothing, and others paying anywhere from 15-150 dollars per child a month. Rich Robleto is the executive director of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation the parent group of Kid Care. He says there are about 700-thousand uninsured children in the state.
"One of the populations that were concerned with are the middle and high school children. An awful lot of families I think at that age the kids are relatively healthy, and a lot of families aren't thinking about preventive services and vaccinations. And there are a lot of middle-age, high school age children that go uninsured and we'd like to focus on them."
Registration can be done online at www.FloridaKidCare.com and the insurance program covers children until age 19.