Enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program declined in September after a slight uptick in August, according to state Agency for Health Care Administration data.
The program had a steep enrollment drop after the spring 2023 end of a federal public health emergency linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drop appeared to end this summer, as enrollment was virtually unchanged in July and slightly increased in August. But the new data showed that 4,341,970 people were enrolled in September, down from 4,372,488 in August.
As a comparison, the program had nearly 5.78 million beneficiaries in April 2023.
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. That led to major increases in enrollment during the emergency.
With the end of the emergency in spring 2023, the state started a process to determine whether people remained eligible, resulting in decreased enrollment.
The process led to a class-action lawsuit that alleges the state did not properly inform beneficiaries before dropping them from the program.
U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard held a trial in the case this summer but has not ruled.
