A leading Florida Democrat is urging the DeSantis administration to keep children enrolled in a subsidized health insurance program for a federally mandated full 12 months and drop a legal challenge to that requirement, which Congress passed in 2023.

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida urging them to agree to a Medicaid waiver that allows the state to expand access to the Florida KidCare program to cover an additional 42,000 children living in families with lower household incomes, as required by a state law, also approved in 2023.

The state cannot expand the program to cover more children without approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) because the program is funded in part with federal Medicaid dollars. Therefore, the added benefits won’t be available until the state abides by the feds’ terms.

The Biden administration approved the state’s waiver request on condition the Florida Medicaid program abides by the 12-month continuous eligibility enrollment requirement and not disenroll children if their families don’t contribute premiums.

Following the approval, Alecia Collins, AHCA’s deputy chief of staff, issued a statement accusing the Biden administration of playing politics with the waiver, approving it as President-elect Donald Trump’s administration is poised to return to the White House.

Collins in the statement said the Biden administration should “show deference to the incoming administration.”

Driskell denounced the agency’s attitude.

“AHCA’s accusation of political gamesmanship could be considered a laughable instance of projection — coming a little more than a month after the state agency spent millions of taxpayer dollars on political campaign activities opposing a citizen ballot initiative — however, the negative consequences of this decision for thousands of Florida families who are unable to afford health insurance for their children is no laughing matter,” Driskell said in her Dec. 11 letter.

“Furthermore, AHCA’s assertion that CMS should not have approved Florida’s waiver application out of deference to the incoming Trump administration is beyond disingenuous, given that it is directly contradicted by AHCA’s own actions during Governor DeSantis’ time in office,” Driskell continued.

She noted that AHCA asked the Trump administration to approve a different Medicaid waiver that allows it to operate a statewide Medicaid managed care program in 2020, two years before it was due to expire; the Trump administration signed off five days before Donald Trump left office.

Florida is the only state to reject the 12-month continuous enrollment requirement, which took effect Jan. 1.

The DeSantis administration unsuccessfully challenged the mandate in a federal court by arguing that CMS exceeded its authority, and that Congress did not require continuous enrollment. The motion, drawn up by Attorney General Ashley Moody and lawyers from the Boyden Gray law firm, also argued that the requirement that families pay premiums is Florida law and needed to maintain the solvency of the program.

Driskell asked that the state drop the legal challenge, now pending in an Atlanta federal appeals court.

“This costly lawsuit and AHCA’s ongoing refusal to comply with federal law by continuing to terminate KidCare coverage for children if their family misses a month’s premium payment are unjustifiable and callous. Our taxpayer dollars are better spent providing children health care rather than litigating in order to deny it,” Driskell wrote.

“Florida is the only state that has refused to comply with the continuous-coverage requirement, and your radically misguided lawsuit puts children’s health care at risk not only in Florida but potentially nationwide if the state’s legal theory is successful.”

Driskell accused the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, which administers the program, of dropping 5,000 children per month in her letter.

But the FHKC says that 18,640 children have been dropped from the program for non payment of premium. The FHKC figure includes disenrollment for non payment of premiums from October 2023, before the mandate took effect, and September 2024. That’s about 7.8% of its overall enrollment, FHKC Ashely Carr said in an email to the Florida Phoenix.

Carr said it’s more accurate to analyze data on a yearly basis and not a monthly basis the latter can contain duplicative information.

“By establishing a specific time period to view members’ enrollment activities, we gain comprehensive insights into their behavior that is not visible when evaluating data by month. This is the most accurate method to present these figures, as it eliminates duplicates that create an inaccurate total,” Carr said in an email to the Florida Phoenix.

Full story at Florida Phoenix