250,000 Floridians Get Kicked Off Medicaid as DeSantis Rakes in Big Donor Cash
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hundreds of thousands of poor Floridians have been kicked off Medicaid in recent weeks as their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, travels the country for his 2024 presidential bid and rakes in campaign cash from big donors.
Florida is among the states that have begun unwinding pandemic-era rules barring states from removing people from Medicaid during the public health emergency. Late last year, Congress reached a bipartisan deal to end the so-called continuous coverage requirements, opening the door to a massive purge of the lifesaving healthcare program.
A dozen states have released early data on the number of people removed from Medicaid as they restart eligibility checks, a cumbersome process that many people fail to navigate.
So far, the statistics are alarming: More than 600,000 people across the U.S. have been stripped of Medicaid coverage since April, according to a KFF Health Newsanalysis of the available data, and "the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork" rather than confirmed ineligibility.
Nearly 250,000 people who have been booted from Medicaid live in Florida, whose governor is a longtime opponent of public healthcare programs. As HuffPost's Jonathan Cohn wrote Sunday, DeSantis "has refused to support the ACA's Medicaid expansion for the state, which is the biggest reason that more than 12% of Floridians don't have health insurance."
"That's the fourth-highest rate in the country," Cohn noted.
But DeSantis, who has said he wants to "make America Florida," appears unmoved by the staggering number of people losing Medicaid in his state as he hits the campaign trail. The governor relied heavily on large contributors to bring in more than $8 million during the first 24 hours of his presidential bid.
Prior to formally launching his 2024 campaign, DeSantis traveled the country in private jets on the dime of rich and sometimes secret donors, and he is currently facing a Federal Election Commission complaint for unlawfully transferring more than $80 million from a state committee to a super PAC supporting his White House bid.
"Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process."
Late last month, DeSantis' administration insisted it "has a robust outreach campaign" aimed at ensuring people are aware of the hoops they have to jump through to keep their Medicaid coverage, such as income verification.
In Florida, a four-person household must make less than $39,900 in annual income to qualify for Medicaid.
The state's early data indicates that 44% of those who have lost coverage in recent weeks were removed for procedural reasons, like a failure to return paperwork on time.
The figures have drawn outrage from local advocates, who urged DeSantis late last month to pause the Medicaid redetermination process after hearing reports of people losing coverage without receiving any notice from Florida's chronically understaffed Department of Children and Families (DCF).
"One of these individuals is a seven-year-old boy in remission from Leukemia who is now unable to access follow-up—and potentially lifesaving—treatments," a coalition of groups including the Florida Policy Institute and the Florida Health Justice Project wrote to DeSantis. "Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process. Additionally, unclear notices and lack of information on how to appeal contribute to more confusion."
Citing Miriam Harmatz, advocacy director and founder of the Florida Health Justice Project, KFF Health Newsreported last week that "some cancellation notices in Florida are vague and could violate due process rules."
"Letters that she's seen say 'your Medicaid for this period is ending' rather than providing a specific reason for disenrollment, like having too high an income or incomplete paperwork," the outlet noted. "If a person requests a hearing before their cancellation takes effect, they can stay covered during the appeals process. Even after being disenrolled, many still have a 90-day window to restore coverage."
The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that around 15.5 million people—including 5 million children—are likely to lose Medicaid coverage nationwide over the next year and a half as states resume eligibility checks made necessary by a system that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all as a right.
"Many people don't realize that they've been disenrolled from Medicaid until they show up at the pharmacy to get their prescription refilled or they have a doctor's appointment scheduled," Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, toldThe Washington Post last week.
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Dick Santis - what an evil scumbag
Wow, you seem to feel strongly about this. So please tell me EXACTLY what DeSantis did to make 250,000 people lose medicade. And please make sure you include what he did to make 205,000 of them that be disqualified because they failed to respond to requests for information needed to renew their eligibility.
another example of conservative xtianity...
Another exampled of government dependency.
I can never understand it, republicans are constantly saying one thing and doing something else. Despite the fact that they keep enacting laws and policies that are against their voter bases, those voters keep voting for them.
See comment 6 below. Has jack shit to do with republicans or anyone else. But we know how liberals like to not recognize people's problems being of their own doing and lack of personal responsibility................
The law that set this up was The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) enacted in December 2022.
Now just to remind those who can't do the research themselves, in December of 2022 the House was controlled by Democrats, the Senate was controlled by Democrats and the White House was controlled by Democrats. And this bill passed with bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate.
But hey, you found something else to post to bitch about DeSantis ignoring that this law was passed by the federal government and all states will be reviewing their Medicaid roles to remove those who no longer qualify to be on Medicaid.
So what law or policy did the republicans pass that caused 80% of the people dropped to either not fill out the application correctly or not answer the request for more information?
Misleading title...neither one has anything to do with the other.
The party of no personal responsibility once again trying to blame a republican for their actions. Who controlled the House late last year? who controlled the Senate? wasn't Joe Alzheimer president then?
Yeah, with the end of the health emergency for Covid this was the expected outcome. And all states will be reviewing and unwinding their Medicaid roles, it's estimated that somewhere between 5 million and 14 million people will lose their eligibility across the country.
But this is a good chance for the partisans to try to pin another target on DeSantis.
The wailing for the rich to pay for the student loans for the irresponsible will be starting soon, we may need to wear ear plugs for a while.
Yeah.. if the rich pay off student loans they won't be able to buy off Republican politicians? Ohhhh the horrors!!!
Dumbest comment so far today.
That's a really, really, really high bar.
I'm not sure it's even the dumbest comment on this seed.
LOL
So either people can't do paperwork or the economy in Florida has lifted people out of poverty so they no longer qualify.
If only DeSantis kept people poor enough to qualify for Medicaid like a good progressive would.
Florida is ranked 4th in terms of uninsured and Texas rates as number one. This is as of 2021 the latest report, 2023 shows Florida at 15.2%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/986620/health-uninsured-population-share-by-us-state/#:~:text=Texas%20was%20the%20state%20with,insurance%20in%202021%2C%20by%20state.
The number will change after the latest purge.
How can that be? Barry said everyone would have coverage. did he lie? Let me guess, it is the republicans fault that irresponsible people don't buy health insurance?
Don't guess since you really have little idea of situation. It is the Republicans decision in Florida that they (Republicans) didn't take advantage of this.
Was the ACA federal law? Did it require everyone to have health insurance? It’s a simple question. The worthless irresponsible takers have to follow the law even if it isn’t free.
In case you forgot, never knew or are just deflecting we are discussing Florida and the uninsured here in the state.
The ''worthless irresponsible takers'' I suspect that you have proof that they are as you stated, or is it just more of the smoke you blow and pretend that it is fact.
Regarding the federal law and the ACA:
it is still federal law that you have health insurance, not the state law, federal law! Irresponsible worthless takers must be plentiful in Florida.
We are a deep red state, so yes a lot of RW irresponsible worthless takers here in the Sunshine State. It's encouraging that you recognize that.
Another ignorant post, Florida could be described as purple but never deep red. California on the other hand is deep blue and has 1/3 of all welfare recipients so we all know who the majority of worthless takers are in any state. Guess where the highest welfare and uninsured are on this map?
Another reminder that we are discussing Florida, not California. And yes, Florida is a deep red state. It is no longer purple or didn't you see the last election? The one that was for the governorship of Florida in 2022.
How about you be honest - lets do it per capita
Lets, move the gold posts because the results don't fit my ideology, the fact is 1/3 of all Welfare recipients live in KKKalifornia with only 1/6 the population. Worthless taketrs.
Ok, so you do not want to present HONEST facts. Gotcha.
goal posts
Those facts were honest, why limit it to Snap?
Their, there, they’re! You are going to be okay.
Sloppy posting shows a lack of respect for the reader. From your reaction, I guess you're pleased to publicize that lack.
Soooo.... yet another bullshit headline from yet another batshit blog.
According to The Tampa Bay Times "About 80% of those terminated — roughly 205,000 — were disqualified because they failed to respond to requests for information needed to renew their eligibility, the state report shows. About 44,300 recipients were referred to other programs because they earn too much to be eligible."
That won't stop some from yelling but but but DeSantis.
That being said applying for Medicade is ridiculously cumbersome and almost impossible to navigate, even compared to Medicare, especially for the elderly. It is just another case of the government making things as difficult as possible for everyone. What the whole system needs is for someone to look into the root cause of the issue and make it much more difficult for people to fall through the bureaucratic cracks. Maybe Kamel breath is available.
Medicaid should not be left up to the governors of red states. It should be a federal program.
It should be abolished/absorbed/replaced and the participants covered under the Affordable Care Act.
The Democrats had the chance to do that, BTW.