Florida KidCare

Florida KidCare, a childhood insurance option for some parents who lost coverage, is failing to offset the coverage gap left by the Medicaid unwinding.

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.

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.

In response to the report, a DCF official says the state's outreach strategy went "above and beyond" federal requirements and "any notion that Florida has failed in this process is false."

It's been nearly a year since Florida began reviewing Medicaid eligibility, and since then nearly a half-million children have lost insurance. Many of them have fallen into a gap without coverage.

The Biden administration is requiring states give CHIP beneficiaries 12 months of continuous coverage, even if families don't pay monthly premiums. State lawyers say premiums are needed for expansion of coverage signed into law last year.

As the state defends its process, the executive director of the Center for Children and Families, says in an interview, "We know children are losing Medicaid," but "where are they going?"

The Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee received updates from DCF, AHCA and Florida Healthy Kids Corp. Many of the concerns focus on children losing coverage.

As many as three insurers could be chosen to provide the dental care, according to the invitation to negotiate approved by members of the Florida Healthy Kids Board of Directors.