Today, Governor Charlie Crist will sign into law legislation that boosts Florida’s KidCare health care initiative after years of steep declines in enrollment caused by bureaucratic barriers and lack of investment. Read more »

With the goal of eliminating disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor announced today that she has introduced a bill designed to ensure that the cancer diagnostic and follow-up tests that are offered to some are offered to all. The bill will require providers to report their practices to encourage doctors to offer adequate care for all, regardless of race, income or health insurance status. Read more »

Congresswoman Kathy Castor will meet with President Obama at the White House tomorrow to discuss critical health care and energy reform measures pending in the House Energy & Commerce Committee. Tomorrow’s meeting is expected to focus on ways to reform health care and to reshape how the United States uses, conserves and invests in energy. Castor and her Democratic colleagues on the House Energy & Commerce Committee have been invited to the meeting with President Obama as health care and energy legislation take shape. Read more »

“Congratulations and thank you to Sen. Nan Rich and Rep. Bill Galvano for all of their hard work to pass this critical KidCare expansion. Now all of the hard work we did in Congress to expand KidCare to an additional 4 million children will be meaningful for Florida’s children and families.” Read more »

Congresswoman Kathy Castor announced today that Tampa Bay area community health centers are receiving approximately $2.7 million through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This money will preserve and create jobs in the health care industry and will enable Tampa area community health centers to see thousands more patients. Read more »

Congresswoman Kathy Castor said today that the University of South Florida’s initiative to bring electronic prescribing to the Tampa Bay area will bring much-needed and well-paying health care and information technology jobs to the region. “PaperFree Tampa Bay is exactly what was intended by the economic recovery plan,” Castor said. “It’s going to create the high-wage jobs of the future.” PaperFree Tampa Bay is a guaranteed job creator as intended by the Recovery Act, creating more than 130 in the Tampa Bay area. Read more »

Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Moffitt director William S. Dalton said today that the cancer and research institute is well-poised to bring hundreds of much-needed construction and health care jobs to the Tampa Bay area from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday. Read more »

In the midst of the most significant economic collapse since the Great Depression, Congresswoman Kathy Castor hailed passage of the economic recovery plan. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a dramatic lifeline to families and businesses across Florida and the struggling Tampa Bay area,” Castor said. “President Barack Obama initiated a bold recovery plan of action upon taking office just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt did seventy years ago. Our neighbors and community now have better opportunities to stop the downward spiral of shrinking jobs, health care and savings.” Read more »

In the 1990s, Florida Education Commissioner Betty Castor worked with then-Gov. Lawton Chiles on developing a health insurance program for Florida’s uninsured children. Florida Kidcare became the model for the national State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) which was enacted on the national level in 1997. Betty’s daughter, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, later took up the mantle and became a leading Florida advocate for families’ access to affordable health care under SCHIP. Rep. Castor was invited by President Obama to the White House to join him today as he signs the children’s health care expansion bill into law. Read more »

Congresswoman Kathy Castor announced today that the economic recovery plan will direct at least $4.3 billion in health care investments to Florida. Castor is a member of the Energy & Commerce Committee which is marking up the economic recovery plan today. The $4.3 billion investment comes from an increased federal match for Medicaid which is one of the largest boosts in the country. Castor has been pushing for this increase in health care investments since last year. Read more »