Study: Florida poor second among those losing Medicaid
By Rob O'Dell, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 20, 2000
WASHINGTON -- A 15-state study released Monday says that Florida experienced the second largest percentage decline in the number of low-income families that received Medicaid during the past two years.
Florida's 26 percent decline in the enrollment of families in Medicaid during that period was the second largest of the states in the study by Families USA, a nonprofit organization that advocates health care for all Americans.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said that since the welfare reform law took effect four years ago, many low-income families have been ineligible for Medicaid and unable to obtain health insurance from their employers.
"For the poorest families, Medicaid has historically offered the path to health insurance coverage," Pollack said. "But since the implementation of health care reform in 1996, the number of people enrolled in Medicaid programs has decreased substantially."
The welfare reform legislation forced many formerly unemployed people to get jobs, but Pollack said employer-sponsored health insurance is often not available to low-wage workers.
"Most people who have health insurance obtain it through their employment," Pollack said. "Only 13 percent of people (nationwide) with incomes below the poverty line have health insurance coverage by their employer."
One reason for the decline in Medicaid enrollment is "poor and sometimes unlawful" administration of Medicaid by states, such as a failure to notify eligible families. Another is the low-income eligibility threshold which disqualifies many needy low-income families, Pollack said.
"In almost two thirds of the states, (32 out of 50), people who work full time at minimum wage --$5.15 an hour -- are considered to have too much income to qualify for Medicaid," he said.
In Florida, people who earn more than $9,648 per year are disqualified from Medicaid coverage, the study said. That's equivalent to working 36 hours per week at minimum wage.
Pollack also said that many states failed to "de-link" welfare and Medicaid after welfare was reformed. Previously, Medicaid was automatically provided for people on welfare, but since welfare reform was enacte, many low-income working parents were not notified that they could still obtain Medicaid coverage, Pollack said.
"Many states have shown poor administration of their Medicaid programs since welfare was reformed." Pollack said. "Computers were not reprogrammed and caseworkers were not retrained, denying many people who qualified for Medicaid the opportunity to have it provided for them."
He added that many low-income parents were not told that they were automatically eligible for Transitional Medicaid for six months after their Medicaid eligibility ended and up to a year if their income level was less than $26,177 for a family of three.
Pollack said the failure to inform people of their eligibility for Medicaid was a violation of federal law.
Specific figures of those families who are eligible for Medicaid but are not currently enrolled in the program were not made available in the report.
The report is the second this month that has cited the growth in the number of uninsured Americans. An article in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health also indicated a decrease in Medicaid enrollment since welfare reform.