Panel looks at Medicaid enrollment in Florida after half a million people lose coverage

medicaid not tax cuts — Supporters of Obamacare want Florida to take federal dollars to expand the state's Medicaid program to one million Floridians. By Janelle Irwin / WMNF News (2015).

A Senate committee next week will receive information about what are known as Medicaid “redeterminations” after enrollment in the healthcare program dropped by more than 500,000 people from April to August.

The decrease in enrollment came after the end of a federal public health emergency stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the public health emergency, the state was unable to remove people from the Medicaid rolls, which meant some beneficiaries stayed in the program while no longer meeting income-eligibility criteria.

But with the public health emergency ending this spring, the state started a controversial process of trying to redetermine eligibility.

Enrollment in the program dropped from 5,778,536 in April to 5,254,460 in August, data on the state Agency for Health Care Administration website showed.

The Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee will hear presentations Oct. 11 from the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Children and Families and the Florida Healthy Kids Corp. about redeterminations, according to a calendar published Monday.

Many states have expanded Medicaid eligibility; Florida has not.