Senate Healthcare Bill Threatens People with Disabilities

Senate Republicans are quietly moving forward with plans to pass a health care bill

In the U.S. right now, the number of people without health insurance has been falling since the passing of Obamacare, but that trend could be reversed now that Republicans want to repeal it. The new plan could take away health insurance from millions of Americans.

The House has already passed its version of the American Health Care Act, repealing Obamacare. Now the Senate is preparing, largely in secret, to vote on its version of Obamacare repeal. That vote will happen sometime in the next 3 weeks. Among the proposals: to cut $880 billion dollars in Medicaid funding, and turn Medicaid into a block grant program.

Radioactivity host Rob Lorei was joined by Karen Clay, who is the co-chair of the Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology, a group that advocates on behalf of people with disabilities.

Annual KidsCount Survey gives Florida low marks

The annual KIDS COUNT Data Book examines recent trends and uses 16 indicators to rank each state across four domains — health, education, economic well-being, and family and community — that represent what children need most to thrive. This year’s report compares data roughly from 2010 to 2015.

The annual KidsCount survey has just been released. This year, Florida ranked 40th among the states, its worst showing in years.

The lowest ranked states were all in the South and Southwest: Mississippi was the lowest ranked state, at No. 50

Families were doing best in New England states: New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont, followed by Minnesota and Iowa.

Florida ranked:

• 31st in education. Only 50 percent of Florida’s children aged 3 and 4 attended school, and 61 percent of fourth graders scored below proficient level in reading.
• 35th in family and community. Nearly half a million (496,000) children lived in families where the head of household lacked a high school diploma. However, the state showed progress in declines in teen birth rates, dropping 34 percent from 28 per 1,000 teen births in 2010 to 21 per 1,000, or 11,957 teen births, in 2015.
• 44th in health. Reaching the state’s lowest level, 284,000 (7 percent) of Florida’s children lacked health insurance in 2015.
• 45th in economic well-being. The number of teens aged 16 to 19 not attending school and not working fell steadily to 73,000 — its lowest level since 2010.

Rob spoke about the survey with Dr. Norín Dollard, who is with the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida.

To listen back to these interviews from Tuesday, June 13, 2017 click here.