Florida Catholic Health Executives Committee 
Urges Inclusion of KidCare in Special Session Call 

Tallahassee – Patrick Madden, FACHE, Chair of the Florida Catholic Health Executives Committee and President and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System stated: “We applaud the legislature for giving a great deal of consideration to streamlining and simplifying the KidCare program in the regular session, and lament that there was not a consensus product passed before its end.”    

Since the regular session’s conclusion, legislators, stakeholders and advocates have worked to identify agreed to improvements to the program that will improve the health of children in our state by making it simpler to enroll and remain in the program.  While there are more contentious issues that some parties would like addressed, there are those that streamline and simplify the program for families with children and are not controversial.  “To wait another year to make these changes in law would keep more children from being insured; the legislature ought to seize the opportunity presented by the Special Session to improve the overall health of children in Florida” said Michael Sheedy, the Florida Catholic Conference’s Associate Director for Health.     

Both the Florida Catholic Conference and the Florida Catholic Health Executives Committee have signed on to a letter in support of addressing agreed to, non-controversial improvements to KidCare.