Action Alerts
Medicaid Expansion
Facts and Figures: What is Expansion?
*Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes adults under the age of 65 with incomes up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). For 2017, this is $16,643 for an individual and $33,948 for a family of four.
- A June 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made expansion of Medicaid optional for states.
- For Medicaid expansion states, the federal government covered 100 percent of the Medicaid costs for newly eligible enrollees in 2016 and will cover 94 percent of costs in FY 2018. The federal share phases down to 90 percent in 2020 and thereafter.
- Medicaid expansion is long overdue in Florida! Over 700,000 Floridians would gain health coverage if our state adopted this common-sense option. That number is growing due to loss of jobs and their related health insurance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- We’re encouraged by the momentum for Medicaid expansion via ballot initiatives around the country in places like Maine, Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska.
- The federal government would return Florida’s tax dollars to pay for 90% of the costs. This will have a significant impact on the state’s economy.
- Closing the health care gap could save the state budget millions. The Florida Policy Institute estimates that Florida would have saved $501,950,000 in 2018 alone.
- Closing the coverage gap would reduce the immense burden on hospitals and clinics that provide free and reduced cost care to low-income, uninsured, and vulnerable populations, such as those with serious mental illness.
*Since most mental health services are delivered via Medicaid, more people would get the care they need.
- To qualify for Medicaid in Florida, a family of four with dependent children must not earn more than 30 percent of the FPL, or $7,380 per year.
- To qualify for marketplace health insurance assistance, a family of four with dependent children must earn at least $24,600 per year. Families between $7,380 and $24,600 annual income are not eligible for any coverage, representing the coverage gap.
- Adults without dependent children are currently ineligible for Medicaid unless they have severe, long-term disabilities.
- Medicaid expansion would benefit hard working Floridians. 63% of potentially eligible parents work outside the home (mostly service/tourism jobs), and 24% are not in the labor force (ex: students, homemakers, retirees).
- Closing the coverage gap will decrease health disparities between communities of color and other communities by providing more access to preventive screenings, prenatal care, wellness checkups, mental health care, and routine visits with physicians.
- Medicaid expansion would give tens of thousands of Florida’s veterans access to comprehensive medical care.
- Medicaid expansion in Florida would help reduce the health disparities found in rural areas, where higher rates of nearly every disease and condition exist.
Contact your Florida state Representative and Senator to ask them to expand Medicaid in our state:
