Florida Removes 1.4 Million People from Health Care Plan

As the Medicaid elimination process progresses, Florida has removed a whopping 1.4 million enrollees.

According to one report, 2.8 million people in the state have been reapproved for government health insurance. report From the Kaiser Family Foundation.

With Medicaid continuity coverage ending this year, millions of Medicaid recipients had to reapply and significant amounts were not reauthorized.

However, a significant portion of that population was removed for procedural reasons such as not filing a form on time, having an incorrect address, or not being properly notified of loss of coverage. .

In Florida, this amounted to 57 percent of the disenrolled population.

Generally, people can be excluded from Medicaid for a variety of reasons. In some cases, you may get older and fall out of your eligibility category, stop getting pregnant, or earn more money.

Florida’s Medicaid exclusions mirror national trends, with at least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees removed from plans nationwide. That’s about 30% of those enrolled since Medicaid began the reduction process.

While populous states such as California and New York have seen large numbers of enrollees lose coverage for procedural reasons, Florida’s loss of coverage was also tied to its specific Medicaid policies.

“A key factor likely to be driving the increase in non-procedural disenrollments is that Texas and Florida have more “It’s the fact that we didn’t adopt the Medicaid expansion that would have given us Medicaid eligibility.”Said Newsweek.

For most Americans, Fong said, losing Medicaid is simply a result of not knowing the deadlines and requirements for forms.

In these cases, he recommends contacting your state’s Medicaid agency immediately to find out why you lost coverage and reapplying if you are still eligible.

“The losses due to procedural issues highlight the lack of a thorough process for lifting COVID-19 Medicaid protections,” Fung said. “A common story from people we meet is that they were never told they lost Medicaid and were never given an opportunity to appeal. They usually go to the doctor and get Medicaid. You only realize you’ve lost Medicaid when you’re told you’ve lost it.” No insurance. ”

Fung said Texas is similar to Florida in that Medicaid has become harder to access for many people.

According to the KFF report, Texas kicked out 2.1 million Medicaid enrollees, leaving just 1.9 million. It was highly concentrated among children, who made up 65 percent of the unregistered population.

“The health care climate in Texas is extremely difficult, which is why many people in Texas live without health insurance,” Fung said. “In Texas, an adult may be financially eligible for Medicaid, but they cannot receive Medicaid because they do not have any dependents under the age of 18.

“What makes it even more complicated is that if they try to apply for a marketplace plan, they probably won’t get the tax credit because the marketplace system kicks their application to Medicaid based on income.”