Florida Medicaid

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

For a decade, Florida lawmakers have debated whether to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Advocates are trying to circumvent the legislature and take the issue directly to voters.

Florida's MYACCESS website is keeping its name but changing its portal, meaning millions of Floridians will have to create a new account — many are in the middle of Medicaid redetermination.

Florida has been one of the most aggressive in this Medicaid redetermination process.

Two children and their parents are suing the state of Florida, alleging that their Medicaid coverage was terminated without proper notice or a chance to contest the state agency's decision.

Medicaid enrollees in Florida face long wait times to get through to call centers for help reapplying — especially Spanish speakers. With hundreds of thousands of people removed from the state's Medicaid rolls since April — and many of them still eligible for the program — advocates fear a 'fiasco.'

Colleagues with a Latino civil rights organization spent three weeks calling in English and Spanish. They found Spanish speakers waited 2½ hours compared to 36 minutes for English speakers.

Paperwork problems and procedural issues are the driving force behind a surge of people losing Medicaid health care coverage in states like Florida.

The waivers aim to reduce the risk of eligible families losing Medicaid coverage due to procedural errors.

The latest ruling involved a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of two adults and two minors. An estimated 9,000 transgender people in Florida use Medicaid to fund their treatments.

Under the bill, the pilot program will be created in Miami-Dade, Monroe, Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Manatee and Polk counties.

State attorneys argued Jason Weida should not have to testify because he is a high-ranking official.