A bill that would extend KidCare coverage to the children of legal immigrants easily passed its first Senate test Tuesday.
The Senate Health Policy Committee voted 7-2 to approve the eligibility expansion, after little discussion. Chairman Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, voted against the bill.
The bill (SB 282) would eliminate a five-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrants to be eligible for Kidcare, Florida’s low-cost health insurance program for children. It’s estimated that more than 25,000 children could get coverage as a result.
This is the third year Sen. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, has sponsored the measure — and the first in which it has passed committees in both chambers.
Garcia emphasized that the bill would help children who are legally living in the state. “This bill is going to go a long way to help a lot of children,’’ Garcia said.
Last year’s measure didn’t get a Senate hearing due to confusion about whether it covered undocumented immigrants as well as legal ones, and Garcia wants no mistake this year.
Estimates of the bill’s cost to the state are roughly $20 million to $27.5 million dollars, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration; about twice that much comes from the federal government. Last year AHCA estimated the bill’s cost at $500 million, which included undocumented immigrants as well.
The House companion (HB 7), sponsored by Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, was unanimously approved by the House Health Innovation Subcommittee last month.