Millions on Medicaid May Soon Lose Coverage as Pandemic Protections End
New York TimesNov 19, 2022
Florida Sued Over Improper Medicaid Terminations
Image copyright: Robert Kaufmann [via Wikimedia Commons]
The Facts
Two Florida state agencies are being sued in Jacksonville federal court over the state’s Medicaid redetermination process, with the plaintiffs claiming that the agencies are providing inadequate and confusing notifications about the end of their public health insurance.
The class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday by two consumer advocacy groups – the Florida Justice Project and the National Health Law Program – on behalf of three Florida residents. This is the first such lawsuit against a state amid widespread unwinding of Medicaid coverage.
The Spin
Republican narrative
The pandemic “emergency” went on for too long and enabled the government to concentrate an unjustified amount of control as well as hoard taxpayer dollars. There was never a rational reason for the decision to extend government subsidies of healthcare for three years. It’s right that power has been returned to the states to determine, and now to redetermine, who will receive taxpayer-funded care.
Democratic narrative
Republicans claim they’re being fiscally responsible by kicking millions of Americans off their Medicaid roles, but they’re just being inhumane to score political points. Many people, including children, are relying on Medicaid programs that they are now inexplicably being excluded from, but the GOP doesn’t seem to care as long as it's scoring well in the polls.