by Andrew Powell
Florida’s Medicaid enrollment continue to decline, according to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy, research and polling.
According to data from the Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker, the number of people on Medicaid in the Sunshine State declined 7 percent from April to July, shrinking from 5.78 million to 5.36 million.
Previously reported KFF data showed that there were a total of 1.35 million people who had become ineligible for Medicaid coverage across 22 states due to the end of a COVID-19-related rule that allowed those not ordinarily eligible for Medicaid to participate in the program.
Once the expanded emergency rules ended on March 31, which temporarily nixed Medicaid eligibility check mandates, the redetermination process resumed and KFF data shows that disenrollments for Florida began in May.
The Sunshine State had around 300,000 residents disenrolled from Medicaid coverage as of June 20. Florida took the top spot in the U.S. for disenrollments and eclipsed second-place Arizona with 149,000 people disenrolled.
The tracker also noted that by June 2023, 951,297 people had renewed their Medicaid coverage, while a total of 430,855 Floridians were disenrolled in the program with the reason for disenrollment almost split equally between procedural reasons (210,282) and being determined ineligible (220,573).
In other large states, Medicaid enrollments also continue to drop. Disenrollment data for Texas shows that as of July 31, 242,717 residents had renewed their coverage, while 616,554 enrollees were disenrolled with around 125,000 determined ineligible and 490,723 disenrolled for procedural reasons.
In New York, despite steadily adding enrollees every month since January, peaking at over 8 million enrollees by June, disenrollment began in July, and since then 338,007 people have lost their Medicaid coverage. This includes 160,029 who were not eligible and 177,978 disenrolled due to procedural issues, according to KFF data.
On the West Coast, California’s disenrollment began in July, however, enrollments had already begun to decline in June, dropping by 400,000 from the previous month. Data shows that 225,417 residents lost coverage in June, with 23% of those being children.
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Andrew Powell is a contributor to The Center Square.
