The primary goal of the Health Care Access Project is to advocate for the universal right to health care for all children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 24) states, "State Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. State Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services."
The Health Care Access Project advocates for medically fragile children (children on life support technology), developmentally delayed children, and children with chronic health conditions. The goal of the Health Care Access Project is to provide these groups of children with the services they are legally entitled to so that they can flourish in their communities.
The Health Care Access Project handles three types of cases: 1) individual administrative cases of children who were denied or reduced health care services; 2) state administrative rule challenges where proposed rules deny or reduce children’s health care services, and 3) federal class actions where large groups of children have been denied health care access.
Project News & Events
and Matthew Dietz (C). Dietz argued a case at the U.S. District Court,
Southern District of Florida, where he upheld the rights of 3,000
medically complex children in, or at risk of being placed in, nursing homes.
In Stinging Rebuke, Judge Orders Florida to Stop Funneling Frail Kids into Nursing Homes
The Miami Herald | July 18, 2023
United States of America vs. State of Florida, United State District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case no. 12-cv-60460-Middlebrooks/Hunt
(Court ruled State violated the ADA by discriminating against Medically Fragile Children) July 14, 2023
Stop housing kids in nursing homes, judge tells
The Miami Herald | May 20, 2023
Medicaid expansion can help build storm resilient communities
Tallahassee Democrat | December 28, 2018
Kids don’t belong in old-folk homes
The Miami Herald | March 17, 2012