In mid-May, Mandi Rokx had a 3-month-old baby and a letter from a Florida agency warning that they both would be cut from Medicaid, the health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.
Under a Florida law passed in 2021, Rokx was supposed to receive 12 months of continuous coverage after giving birth. But the letter from Florida’s Department of Children and Families said their coverage would end May 31.
The explanation: “You failed to complete or follow through with your Medicaid renewal.”
Rokx said she didn’t understand why the state was cutting coverage. She had provided everything it asked for, she said.
She worried about what losing Medicaid would mean for her daughter, Vernita. Initially after the coverage ended, Rokx said, she paid out-of-pocket for the infant’s checkups. She then turned to a free health fair put on once a month by a local nonprofit near her home in Melrose, Florida.
“I just hope she doesn’t get sick,” she said.
An unknown number of mothers in Florida have abruptly lost Medicaid coverage after giving birth, despite being eligible, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit filed against the state in August 2023. The issue is linked to the state’s computer eligibility system, run by Deloitte Consulting, according to trial testimony from state and Deloitte employees. It is yet one more example of problems states and beneficiaries have encountered with Medicaid management syste …