Children's advocates Tuesday released a plan to extend Florida KidCare, the state's subsidized health insurance program for children, to the hundreds of thousands of kids who don't have it.
Last year just three states had a higher percentage of uninsured children than Florida - about 579,000 statewide, including 358,000 youngsters who qualified for the coverage.
Diana Ragbeer of The Children's Trust says advocates want to make it easier for families to enroll in KidCare and stay enrolled.
"Sick children can't learn. We need to provide all of these supports at the same time we are giving such credence to education”, Ragbeer said. “This is all supporting that, so that we do have good outcomes, that we do end up with successful children and we can really compete in the global economy."
Last year, KidCare cut the percentage of low-income, uninsured children to about 19% - the lowest since the state began keeping track. But at the same time, a much lower ratio of American kids were uninsured: 9.7%.