Latest report of Medicaid coverage loss shows fewer than five million Floridians are still eligible

Fewer than five million Floridians are still receiving free and low-cost healthcare through Medicaid as the wave of coverage loss continues, according to the latest Florida Agency for Health Care Administration report.

In November, the state deemed 159,323 people ineligible to continue enrollment in the program, bringing the total of eligible Floridians from 5,105,874 to 4,946,551 in a month, according to data published by the agency on Monday. More than half of those who lost coverage in November, 55 percent, are 18 and younger.

A Flourish pictogram

AHCA and the Department of Children and Families have been reviewing people’s eligibility for the program since March, following the end of continued coverage from the COVID-19 public health emergency. In the months since people started losing Medicaid, health policy groups have criticized the process for its high rate of procedural terminations.

Those terminations occur when people don’t submit the necessary information to determine their eligibility or because the state has outdated contact information. Thus, their application cannot be completed.

The agencies will continue to drop people from Medicaid until March. By then, 250,000 more Floridians could be unable to find other health coverage and become uninsured, according to public health policy experts at George Washington University.

Just last week, a U.S. District judge in Jacksonville heard arguments from the Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program for a preliminary injunction seeking to restore coverage to those dropped from Medicaid since March.