CHIP

We begin a four-part series examining how children with complex medical needs are fairing after losing Medicaid in the unwinding and being pushed onto state-run insurance not designed for their needs.

The dispute centers on part of the rule preventing states from cutting off coverage for nonpayment of premiums after children have been found eligible for the children's health insurance program.

Texas hospitals who are enrolled in state health plans, Medicaid and CHIP will start asking patients' immigration status in November. Florida has had a similar law since 2023.

The judge dismissed the state's lawsuit against two federal agencies and said the case should instead be an administrative challenge. Next stop is the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Both states want to expand eligibility for the CHIP, but their approaches to charging low-income families premiums for the coverage showcase the nation’s ideological divide on helping the disadvantaged.

A brief from the Justice Department argues that Florida's lawsuit is “premised on several misapprehensions” about the rule and that a injunction motion should be rejected.

U.S. Judge William Jung rules federal law requires the state to go through an administrative process to challenge the guidelines. After that process, the state could take the issue to a federal appeals court.

A filing in federal court in Tampa by the Justice Department is the latest move in a battle over guidelines issued for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which operates in Florida as KidCare.

The December update shows that over 911,000 Floridians were disenrolled from Medicaid since DCF began its redetermination process in April. Of that total, about 420,000 were children.

As enrollment numbers continue to drop, Health and Human Services wrote to Florida and eight other states asking them to work with federal authorities to find solutions and get people insured again.