Here are the key facts:
After weeks of weathering political assaults from the left, state Republicans announced a plan Tuesday to eliminate a waiting list for tens of thousands of poor children seeking subsidized healthcare.
First, Republican senators said, they would spend $25 million to provide healthcare to about 90,000 children on the list until the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Second, they proposed freezing enrollment in the KidCare program. That eliminates future lists, which grow by about 2,000 children a week, and the bad press that goes with it.
Also tucked in a proposed bill: measures that no longer guarantee dental coverage and that deny benefits to any child whose working-poor family is “eligible” for insurance, regardless of the expense.
But what's the headline in the Miami Herald? GOP: End wait for poor kids' care!
The portion of the KidCare program in question serves 315,000. It is largely restricted to those children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but earn no more than double the federal poverty level of $18,400 for a family of four.
Right. End the wait by having fewer people eligible! Kinda gives a new ring to 'No Child Left Behind' doesn't it? But you'd never guess it from scanning the headline (and the article was buried inside the Metro section too).
