Experts warn that Florida will face an alarming spike in the number of families losing health insurance in the coming months, caused by federal changes and actions by the Gov. Ron DeSantis administration.
The looming elimination of federal tax credits which helped make Florida the leading state for Obamacare and DeSantis’ opposition to a key element needed to expand children’s health coverage has created a troubled landscape, they said.
“There’s an ‘unwelcome mat’ effect,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. She said President Trump’s aggressive immigration policies and his ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ which includes future rollbacks to Medicaid, also are leading many families to lose or not seek health coverage.
In Florida, DeSantis has blocked an eligibility expansion for the state’s KidCare program unanimously approved in 2023 by the state’s Republican-led Legislature. DeSantis is in a legal standoff with federal officials over a requirement that children keep getting care even if parents miss an insurance payment.
The outlook? Bleak
All told, the outlook is bleak, Alker said: “When you have a situation where cuts are being discussed … cuts in outreach we’ve seen, shortening the open-enrollment period for the marketplace, adding more red tape. Those just create essentially an unwelcoming environment.
“The word on the street is, ‘Health care is going away,’ ” she added.
Alker and analysts from the Florida Policy Institute and Florida Voices for Health took part in a Sept. 15 video conference to highlight a range of issues threatening health coverage.
Florida had long been plagued by a high uninsured level. But that changed as recently as 2023, when federal moves prompted by COVID-19 left only 15% of Floridians with no health coverage, a new low.
Now, that is changing, advocates said.
“As we look ahead to the upcoming cuts to Medicaid and the changes to the Affordable Care Act, this will have a devastating impact on children and families in Florida,” said Sadaf Knight, CEO of the Florida Policy Institute.
Half of Obamacare insured may be priced out in Florida
About 4.7 million Floridians receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the most of any state in the nation. Experts warn that close to half of them will be priced out of the marketplace if tax credits now in place go away as scheduled at year’s end – if Congress does not act.
Knight said insurance premium costs are “about to skyrocket” for most of those covered.
Florida’s 28-member congressional delegation includes 20 Republicans. A number of organizations in the state, including the big business lobbying firm, Associated Industries of Florida, have begun pressuring them to support extending the tax credits.
But that still appears a political longshot.
Trump, who has long fought Obamacare, not likely to help
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that permanently extending the enhanced premium tax credits would cost $370 billion over the next 10 years. President Trump, who unsuccessfully pushed for repealing Obamacare for years, has expressed no support for extending the tax credits.
Still, politically red states, including Florida and Texas, have huge populations who have gained health coverage only with the credits. DeSantis’ resistance to accepting the KidCare continued care provision has blocked health coverage for many moderate-income families.
Jennifer Wiedmeyer, of Fort Myers, whose 10-year-old son suffers profound health problems, including heart defects, lost her KidCare coverage two years ago, because her family’s income topped the acceptable threshold.
“We’ve been left in limbo,” Wiedmeyer said, adding that her son has missed a number of treatments as a result. “Without reliable and affordable insurance for children with complex health needs, families like ours are being forced to choose between care and survival.”
John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘Unwelcome mat’: Health insurance threatened for millions of Florida families
Reporting by John Kennedy / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
