Florida Removes 1.3m People From Health Care Plan

Over one million Floridians have had their health insurance revoked as a result of a nationwide disenrollment from coverage that was previously safeguarded as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrolment in Florida has fallen from 5.1 million to 3.8 million between March 2023 and October 2024, according to health care research non-profit the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).

Why It Matters

While some people may be re-enrolled, transition to employer-sponsored plans, or search for coverage in the wider healthcare marketplace, the decline poses a risk to Florida's most vulnerable populations and underscores challenges in effectively communicating healthcare policies to the public. The Sunshine State lags behind the national average in terms of coverage, ranking fourth in the U.S. for the number of uninsured individuals under 65, according to Census Bureau data cited by Axios.

What To Know

As part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed in March 2020, the continuous enrollment provision required states to maintain coverage for Medicaid enrollees during the pandemic, eliminating the need for regular eligibility redeterminations.

After the policy was discontinued in March 2023, eligibility checks and disenrollments recommenced, resulting in massive losses of coverage for those either deemed ineligible or who were unable to renew their policies or complete their redeterminations as a result of delays or other difficulties. According to KFF, over 25 million people have been disenrolled as a result of the national unwinding process as of September 12, while over 56 million had their coverage renewed over the same period. Disenrollment rates vary significantly across the country, from 57 percent in Montana to 12 percent in North Carolina, which KFF attributes to differing approaches to promoting continued coverage, the use of automated eligibility systems, as well as wider differences in renewal policies and general system capacity. According to a poll conducted by KFF shortly after the unwinding process began, 65 percent of Medicaid enrollees were unaware that states could begin removing individuals from the program if they were ineligible or failed to complete the renewal process. The disenrollment rate in Florida (38 percent) is one of the highest in the country. KFF found that only 36 percent of these terminations were due to individuals' failing to meet eligibility requirements, while 64 percent were terminated for the "procedural reasons" listed above. According to the Florida Policy Institute, procedural disenrollment can happen as a result of someone not responding to mail notices, having moved residence during the pandemic, not understanding the complex redetermination process, as well as administrative errors. In August 2023, two families filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida, alleging that their children's Medicaid coverage was terminated without proper notice during the "unwinding" process, highlighting the concerns about procedural issues in Medicaid's post-pandemic eligibility redeterminations.

What People Are Saying

"We are seeing a high volume of errors being made in the eligibility determinations," Lynn Hearn, director of advocacy at the Florida Health Justice Project said last year. "We see these in our individual practice, and we learned some additional information about these types of errors during the litigation."

What Happens Next?

According to KFF, enrolment in Medicaid and CHIP currently sits at 79.3 million as of October, down from a peak of 94.5 million in April 2023, but still above the pre-pandemic level of 71.4 million in February 2020. the non-profit anticipates, however, that disenrollments will continue to increase. Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.