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Pediatricians: State Hurt Sick Kids To Help GOP Donors

Agency for Health Care Administration

In the spring and summer of 2015, the state switched more than 13,000 children out of Children's Medical Services, a part of Florida Medicaid, according to a report by CNN.

Children on this plan have serious health problems including birth defects, heart disease, diabetes and blindness.

The state moved the children to other Medicaid insurance plans that don't specialize in caring for very sick children, CNN reported.

Parents and Florida pediatricians are now raising 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.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.