Florida backs off policy that removed more than 1,700 ex-foster kids from Medicaid

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has quietly backed away from a policy that removed 1,730 former foster children from the state’s Medicaid rolls over the past six years in apparent violation of federal law. Under Florida law, former foster children qualify for Medicaid benefits up to age 21 under the federal Social Security Act. But the federal Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, established a new Medicaid eligibility category for former foster children to age 26.

Since January, the Department of Children and Families has waived a state policy that required all former foster children to reapply for Medicaid when they turned age 22, even though they continued to qualify for the program until they were 26 under federal law.

And in what a South Florida legal group called “particularly egregious,” the Medicaid application contained a screening question asking if people were formerly in foster care. If not properly answered, applicants were denied.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article250346316.html