FLORIDA KIDCARE HEALTH INSURANCE
Florida KidCare is the state’s children’s health insurance program. It provides health insurance for children in Florida that are currently uninsured. It was created in 1998 and reauthorized through 2019. Funding for KidCare was recently reauthorized for another two years. Over $500 million was appropriated during the current reauthorization to help Florida parents, who according to https://floridainsurancequotes.net/health-insurance-quote/ have no other form of insurance coverage, with the costs of health insurance coverage for their child.
Who qualifies
To qualify for KidCare, the child needs to be under the age of 19. Also, the child has to be a citizen or a qualified non-citizen. For a child to qualify, he or she cannot be placed in a public institution. Qualification is also determined by household income and household size. For example, for a family of four, the maximum household income is $47,400.
How it works
KidCare provides affordable, low-cost health insurance to almost 2 million children in Florida. KidCare uses a sliding scale to determine how much a family will have to pay in premiums per child. Some families pay nothing, while others pay around $15-20 a month. All sources of income have to be verified as part of the application process. Information that will be required as part of the application process includes: any household income including child support (pay stubs from the last 4 weeks, current tax returns including W-2s), social security number for the child for which you are applying, and amount of daycare/after school care that you pay.
What benefits are covered
Florida KidCare offers a comprehensive package. It covers checkups, immunizations, surgery, hospitalization, and prescriptions. It also covers dental, vision, hearing, emergency transportation and behavioral health. Some services may require a small co-pay. A full pay option is available to parents who need to provide insurance coverage for their children, options are available but sometimes they do not qualify for the reduced/ free insurance coverage. Then they do not have any other source of insurance coverage.
4 components
There are four components to KidCare. Medicaid covers children from birth to age 18 and is available to families with low income. MediKids offers coverage from ages 1-4 ($159/month full pay option with dental). Healthy Kids provides coverage for children ages 5-18 ($133/ month full pay with dental). Healthy Kids is administered by Florida Healthy Kids Corporation. The final component is the Children’s Medical Services Network. This program offers medical coverage for children with special healthcare needs through age 18. Children must qualify financially and medically. CMSN financial qualifications upper limit is set at 200% of the federal poverty level. If a child does not qualify financially, there is no full payment option for CMSN, but there may be eligibility for select health services, depending upon funding availability. Medical qualification is determined by the completion of an eligibility screening tool that is administered by nurses employed by CMSN.
Enrollment/ RE-Enrollment process
All applications are screened for qualification for Medicaid and CMSN. Applications can be completed online or by contacting county health offices. All children must be re-enrolled each year on the anniversary of initial enrollment. Current income documentation must be submitted at the time of re-enrollment.
Every child should have health insurance in Florida
It has been estimated that over 800,000 children don’t have health insurance coverage in Florida. With the availability of Florida Kidcare from https://floridainsurancequotes.net/health-insurance-quote/, this shouldn’t be an issue any longer. The state of Florida is working hard to provide affordable health insurance to the uninsured children within the state. A child should not go without healthcare. Not having health insurance should not be a reason for a child not receiving the healthcare he or she needs. Florida KidCare eliminates that reason.