Like many parents, Tatiana Lafortune wants her children to get a good education, eat nutritious food, and see a doctor when they’re not feeling well.
Public schools and her church’s pantry help Lafortune accomplish the first two goals. But insurance to cover doctor visits has been the most difficult to secure.
As nursing assistants at a traumatic brain injury rehab center near Tampa, Florida, Lafortune and her husband cannot afford the health insurance benefits offered by their employer. And they earn too much for their daughters to qualify for subsidized coverage through Florida KidCare, the state’s safety net health insurance program for children in low-income families.
Her family also can’t afford the $525 monthly cost to enroll her two daughters in KidCare at full price, so she purchased a family plan for $500 a month on the Affordable Care Act marketplace with no dental coverage and higher out-of-pocket costs.
“KidCare is better for children,” she said. “But at least I have something for them.”
In 2023, Florida lawmakers unanimously approved expanding KidCare to close the gaps for families like Lafortune’s, raising the eligibility threshold so that coverage would extend to more than 40,000 children. But the expanded coverage has not taken effect — even after it was approved by federal regulators following a federal lawsuit — because the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has not impl …