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A decade ago, a group of providers sued the state, charging Florida’s Medicaid program shortchanged medical and dental care for kids. Proponents said Medicaid Managed Care was supposed to make it better, but five years into the new system, the legislature is poised to remove dental coverage for kids and roll it into a separate program. The Florida Department of Health, along with the United Way, goes around to elementary and middle schools, performing routine cleanings and dental sealants for second and sixth graders. That’s when adult molars start coming in. At Tallahassee's Sable Palm Elementary School, the brightly colored furniture of the teachers' break room has been transformed into a dental clinic, where six kids are laying backs down, feet up, as dentists hover over them with a range of hoses, humming machines, and bright lights. (Hatter, 3/13)

Legislative support is growing for a further delay of a plan to combine Medicaid waiver services — part of a recent pattern of the Republican lawmakers pushing back against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration. A subcommittee of four members of the House Health and Human Services Committee recommended last week that the administration postpone the waiver integration one year to Jan. 1, 2018. (3/14)