Medicaid enrollment continues to decrease in Florida

Enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program continued to decrease in June, as a federal judge weighs whether the state improperly dropped people from the program after the end of a public health emergency linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Florida’s program included 4,363,948 beneficiaries in June, down from 4.423,280 in May, according to newly posted state data.

The program had nearly 5.78 million beneficiaries in April 2023, but enrollment has steadily decreased since the end of the federal public health emergency.

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 has 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 is holding a trial this week in Jacksonville in the case.