Florida Removes 1.4 Million People from Health Care Plan

As the Medicaid unwinding process unfolds, Florida removed a whopping 1.4 million of enrollees.

In the state, 2.8 million enrollees were re-approved for government health coverage, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Because the continuous coverage for Medicaid ended this year, millions of Medicaid beneficiaries had to reapply, and a substantial amount didn't get re-approved.

However, significant chunks of that population were removed due to procedural reasons, like not submitting the form on time or having an incorrect address and not receiving proper notice about their loss of coverage.

In Florida, that amounted to 57 percent of the de-enrolled population.

Generally, people can be removed from Medicaid for various reasons. Sometimes, they age out of an eligibility category, are no longer pregnant or had an increase in income.

Florida's Medicaid removals echo a nationwide trend as at least 19.6 million Medicaid enrollees had been taken off their plans across the country. That's roughly 30 percent of enrollees since Medicaid began its cutting process.

While highly populated states like California and New York saw high numbers of enrollees lose coverage due to procedural reasons, Florida's loss of coverage was also connected to its specific Medicaid policies.

"A significant factor that is likely causing higher number of disenrollments due to non-procedural reasons is the fact that Texas and Florida did not adopt the Medicaid expansion which allows more people to qualify for Medicaid," Chris Fong, the CEO of Smile Insurance, told Newsweek.

Fong said for most Americans, losing Medicaid comes down to just not being aware of the form deadlines or requirements.

In these cases, he recommends reaching out to the state Medicaid agency immediately to find out the reasons you lost your coverage and to reapply if you still qualify.

"The losses because of a procedural issue is highlighting the lack of a thorough process for the unwinding of the Covid Medicaid protections," Fong said. "The common story amongst the people we meet is that they were never provided notice that they lost Medicaid nor given the chance to appeal. They usually only find out that they have lost Medicaid when they try going to the doctor and they are told they have no insurance."

Texas is similar to Florida in that it has made Medicaid less attainable for many, according to Fong.

The KFF report found Texas kicked off 2.1 million Medicaid enrollees and kept just 1.9 million. That was highly concentrated among children, who made up 65 percent of the unenrolled.

"The health care situation in Texas is very challenging, which is causing many people to go without health insurance in Texas," Fong said. "An adult may financially qualify for Medicaid in Texas, but they are not able to get Medicaid because they do not have a dependent child under 18.

"The additional complication is if they were to try to apply for a Marketplace plan, they will likely not get any tax credits because the Marketplace system will kick the application out to Medicaid due to their income."