Florida is failing its most vulnerable children.

Sunshine Health, the company paid billions by the state to run Florida’s Children's Medical Services program, has denied vital in-home nursing care to dozens of medically fragile children — kids who rely on feeding tubes, seizure medication, and 24/7 supervision just to survive. These denials aren't just wrong — they violate a federal court order mandating that Florida provide this care so children can live safely at home, not in institutions.

Parents across the state are sounding the alarm. Moms like Alyssa Hagan, who had to juggle full-time work while monitoring her 5-year-old daughter Caroline’s feeding tube and medications. Or Jamaris Westerband, whose child suffers prolonged seizures and sometimes requires emergency intubation — but was still denied in-home care. These families aren’t asking for luxuries. They’re fighting for basic medical care their children need to stay alive — care that doctors have prescribed and that the state is legally required to provide.

Yet Sunshine Health — a Centene-owned company with a history of Medicaid overbilling — continues to slash services, reject appeals, and ignore medical recommendations. Families are left scrambling, drained emotionally and financially, and some are now being forced to consider institutionalizing their children simply because they can’t keep them safe at home without nursing support.

This isn’t just a policy failure. It’s a moral one.

We, the undersigned, call on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Agency for Health Care Administration, and Sunshine Health to immediately:

• Restore full, medically necessary in-home nursing hours as prescribed by licensed physicians.
• Comply with the federal injunction ensuring disabled children can remain safely at home.
• Provide transparency around nursing hour denials and appeals.

Children deserve to grow up surrounded by love — not be isolated in institutions because of bureaucratic cruelty. Sign to demand immediate action.

Photo: DIRK SHADD | Tampa Bay Times