Pediatricians say Florida hurt sick kids to help big GOP donors
By Elizabeth Cohen and Katherine Grise, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/health/florida-sick-kids-insurance-eprise/index.html
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Like nearly half of all children in Florida, LJ is on Medicaid, which has several types of insurance plans. The state had switched LJ to a new plan, and his surgeons didn't take it.
Doctors: 'Trick question' hurt sick kids 06:39
LJ wasn't alone. In the spring and summer of 2015, the state switched more than 13,000 children out of a highly respected program called Children's Medical Services, or CMS, a part of Florida Medicaid. Children on this plan have serious health problems including birth defects, heart disease, diabetes and blindness.
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Finally, parents and Florida pediatricians raise questions about the true reasons why Florida's Republican administration switched the children's health plans. They question whether it was to financially reward insurance companies that had donated millions of dollars to the Republican Party of Florida.
"This was a way for the politicians to repay the entities that had contributed to their political campaigns and their political success, and it's the children who suffered," said Dr. Louis St. Petery, former executive vice president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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