Medically Unnecessary
Florida Healthy Kids doesn’t work for many medically vulnerable kids. Here’s whyThis is part three of a four-part series examining how children with complex medical needs are faring after losing Medicaid coverage and being pushed onto state-run health insurance not designed for their needs.
Submitted by Joe Mario Pedersen
(Source: Florida Courier)
PART 3
At 9-years old, Orlando resident Landon Chase has survived some pretty serious and scary things; cancer and chemotherapy are at the forefront.
His big challenge now, though, is healing from chemo, a process, his mom, Erin Booth, says is being hindered and made more difficult by Florida’s children’s health insurance program.
Landon was on Medicaid coverage during his cancer treatment, but like 500,000 other children in the state, he saw his coverage taken away during the Medicaid disenrollment period.
Now, Landon and about 137,000 other children are receiving coverage through the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, which the state recommended for low-income families who didn’t have access to health insurance from employment and couldn’t afford federal marketplace insurance.
The problem, Florida Healthy Kids is as advertised. It’s for healthy kids, not children recovering from cancer.
“How is that fair? How can you judge a kid that has multiple disabilities? How can you not give the same level of service?” Booth said.
Landon and many other medically vulnerable children like him were referred to Florida Healthy Kids and found the insurance doesn’t cover what they need for their day-to-day lives.
The Booth story
Landon was playing soccer with a friend his age. He tried running to keep up, but quickly got winded. Instead of playing, he walked back to his mom.
“I’m just a little different, I think,” Landon said to Booth.
