The federal government’s temporary expansion of Medicaid during the pandemic helped millions of Floridians weather the public health crisis. With that coverage ending, Florida needs to carefully draw down the rolls, ensuring that those eligible continue to receive uninterrupted care, that health providers don’t suffer financial shock and that community safety nets remain intact. It’s another reminder of how Florida loses by refusing to follow the lead of many other Republican-led states in permanently expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Congress passed a coronavirus relief package in 2020 that offered states additional federal funding in exchange for guaranteeing that recipients of Medicaid, a joint federal-state program for low-income people, would retain their health coverage. The measure was intended to ensure low-income families could afford medical treatment during the public health emergency. Tens of millions of Americans were spared nationwide; enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program ballooned by 1.7 million people.
But the expiration of the public health emergency last week means that states have about 14 months to disenroll those who no longer qualify. Federal officials have estimated that about 15 million people will lose coverage, including nearly 7 million people who are expected to be dropped even though they still qualify. In Florida, as the Tampa Bay Times reported last week, close to a million residents could be thrown off the program over the coming year. The Florida Department of Children and Families plans to review the eligibility of almost 5 million recipients. It has already identified around 900,000 recipients it said were no longer eligible, while another 850,000 recipients had not responded to requests from the state for details about their income.
