Medicaid enrollment in Florida continues to decline

stethoscope on money — By merznatalia via iStock for WMNF News.

Enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program continued to drop in May, with 4.423 million people receiving health care through the system, according to newly posted data on the state Agency for Health Care Administration website.

The May total was down from 4.459 million in April and continued decreases that began in spring 2023 with the end of a federal public health emergency that had been declared during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medicaid is jointly funded by the federal and state governments, and Washington agreed to pick up more of the tab for the program as part of the public health emergency, which was declared in January 2020.

But in exchange for the extra money, states had to agree that they wouldn’t drop people from the Medicaid rolls during the emergency.

Florida’s program grew from about 3.8 million beneficiaries in January 2020 to nearly 5.78 million in April 2023.

With the end of the emergency, the state started a process to determine whether people remained eligible, resulting in decreased enrollment.

The process has led to a class-action lawsuit that alleges the state did not properly inform beneficiaries before dropping them from the program.