Crist promotes children's health today

Jim Ash, news-press.com Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Charlie Crist promotes children's health today in a pair of public appearances in Tallahassee.

Crist travels a few miles from the Capitol to Augusta Raa Middle School for a 9 a.m. press conference to highlight physical fitness for students.

Leon County Schools Superintendent Jackie Pons, Capital Health Plan chief executive officer John Hogan and chief medical officer, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem and more than two dozen students will join Crist, according to a written release.

Crist steps before the microphone again at 2:45 p.m. to discuss KidCare, the program that brings steeply discounted insurance to the children of the working poor.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that will streamline the KidCare application process in an effort to attract thousands of children who qualify but are not enrolled.

On Tuesday, however, the Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee tacked on an amendment that would exclude the children of state employees and the children of legal immigrants.