Top Florida lawmakers are balking at Congress' plans to help more poor people get healthcare, though they've protected an entitlement of their own: free insurance premiums.

Taxpayers have been stuck with covering the premiums -- at a cost of about $45 million a year -- even while lawmakers pledged to scrimp as they grappled with three straight years of budget shortfalls.

Florida doesn't limit the subsidies to statewide officeholders like Gov. Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, or to legislators like Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul. About 27,479 state employees -- many of them high-level bureaucrats and political appointees -- also get the break. So do their families.

``I think it's appropriate. I think it's part of the compensation package for a public servant,'' Crist said. ``It's a policy that has been supported by the Legislature and I'm comfortable with it.''

The governor plans to add his wife of nearly one year, wealthy businesswoman and philanthropist Carole Crist, as well as her two daughters from a previous marriage to his health plan on Jan. 1. The girls attend an all-girls private school in New York and live with their father, who owns a jet-rental company.

``There is not a residency requirement for coverage,'' explained Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey.

Only six other states offer free insurance premiums to some employees and their families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Even members of Congress pay monthly fees for health benefits.

EARN $100,000-PLUS

Of the government workers who get free insurance premiums in Florida, 2,431 earn more than $100,000.

Some state officials said the health benefits should be reviewed in next year's budget talks after the Herald/Times raised questions. Other state government leaders defended the benefits -- even as they rail against proposals to allow more poor people to qualify for insurance through the federal Medicaid program. ``It seems to me we need to stop it in its tracks,'' Crist told the Broward Republican Party last week.

RUBIO BENEFITED

Crist's Republican rival for the U.S. Senate, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, also opposes the healthcare bills in Congress. He received premium-free insurance during his eight years in the Legislature and never proposed scaling back benefits to save tax dollars.

Rubio declined to comment for this story.

``I definitely think it's hypocritical,'' said Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida CHAIN, which backs the Medicaid reforms. ``State legislators always have other priorities, but we're talking about health insurance for pregnant women, poor children and people who are disabled.''

BIG TAB

Under the legislation in Congress to expand Medicaid, the federal government would initially pick up all the tab for new recipients. But in three years, the state would have to start chipping in bigger sums of money.

By 2016, Florida taxpayers would have to spend about $1 billion more to help cover an additional 1.7 million Medicaid recipients under the House bill, which expands the program more than the Senate version.

Medicaid is already punching holes in Florida's budget and accounts for much of next year's projected budget shortfall of $2.7 billion.

`BUDGET WRECKER'

``This unfunded mandate is a budget wrecker for Florida and one we should not be forced to endure,'' said Atwater, the Republican Senate president, in a statement from his campaign for state chief financial officer -- a $129,000 post that also comes with subsidized health insurance.