The federal government prohibits states from terminating subsidized health insurance for children even if their parents don’t make payments. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
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A federal judge has dismissed Florida’s legal challenge to a federal rule prohibiting states from terminating subsidized health insurance coverage for low-income children if their parents don’t pay the premiums.
In the suit, the State of Florida and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration argued that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid overstepped its authority by telling states they couldn’t cut off children’s coverage for 12 months after they were enrolled in KidCare, even if the parents stopped paying.
KidCare is a health plan for low-income children who do not qualify for Medicaid, and most parents pay $15 or $20 per month for subsidized coverage, according to the program’s website. More than 119,000 children in Florida have KidCare coverage, according to the complaint from the state.
Judge William Jung in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa threw out the suit on Friday, ruling that his court lacked jurisdiction over the claims. Florida sought a preliminary injunction to stop the federal government from enforcing the rule, but Jung also denied that.
The rule went into effect on Jan. 1 and Florida filed the suit on Feb. 1.
In his 16-page order, Jung wrote that the state hadn’t experienced any financial injury because of the rule yet and therefore wasn’t entitled to relief from the courts. The state could file an administrative appeal through the federal government, he continued, and come back to court if it’s unhappy with that outcome.
Affordable health care coverage advocates celebrated Friday’s outcome.
“We applaud the judge’s decision to dismiss this case. The new law and interpretation by CMS regarding continuous eligibility will enable tens of thousands more children and youth to receive much-needed health care without fear of early termination of coverage,” Florida Policy Institute CEO Sadaf Knight said in a written statement.
No excuse
Lynn Hearn, advocacy director for the Florida Health Justice Project, urged the state to stop terminating KidCare coverage for children.
“The court’s decision today completely eliminates any excuse Florida believed it had beginning Jan. 1, 2024, to disenroll children from CHIP/KidCare when their parents miss a single premium payment,” Hearn said in a statement. “Florida must stop these disenrollments immediately and direct its resources toward expanding and improving access to health care for Florida’s children rather than impeding it.”
KidCare is the name of Florida’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.
Meanwhile, the expansion of KidCare that the Florida Legislature approved in 2023 is in limbo because the agency in charge of implementing the program didn’t submit the paperwork to the federal government in time. Lawmakers raised the income limit for the health care program from 200% to 300% of the federal poverty level, which is 93,600.00 for a family of four.
The attorney general’s office and AHCA had not responded to inquiries at the time of publishing.
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