As the health care debate rages nationally, state officials say low cost health care for your children is available right now. A family of four making less than 44 thousand dollars a year can get coverage from the Kid Care program for just 20 dollars a month. Administrative barriers to applying have been removed.

Single mother Leah McCarthy came to the capitol with a story to tell about the Kid Care health insurance program.

“Just regular kid’s stuff that they covered for us. And then as the regular kid stuff developed, she developed physical problems and we started to see specialists.”

With kids in the foreground, state officials like Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp and Leah are plugging the Kid Care program as a way to beat the high cost of health care.

“If your family does not have healthcare insurance then Kid Care should be on the back to school shopping list.”

Under former governor Jeb Bush, state officials were embarrassed when they couldn’t keep up with the demand for the highly popular program, so they made it harder to enroll. Joining was limited to twice a year. Unrealistic proof of income was instituted and a waiting list was abolished.

But now Kid Care Board Chairman Loranne Ausley says enrolling is getting easier again.

“Just in the last two months, we have 50,000 new previously uninsured kids in the program.”

“Kid Care actually focus grouped their application to make it easier to fill out. And the law has also changed so that you don’t have to wait six months if you lose your health insurance.”

The program is available to all kids regardless of income. The premium can be as low as 15 dollars and never more than 159. One point six million kids are currently enrolled.

Applications are available on line at: http://www.floridakidcare.org
Under the current load, applications are taking just less than a month to process.