The DeSantis administration said Wednesday it no longer will require some children to go uninsured for two months before enrolling them in the federal children’s health insurance program, or CHIP.
The Agency for Health Care Administration announced in the Florida Administrative Register that it was amending its CHIP State Plan to eliminate the 60-day waiting period for enrollment in Kidcare for children who previously were insured through an employer-sponsored or private health benefit plan.
The CHIP state plan represents Florida’s official agreement with the federal government laying out how the program will operate. The requirement that those children go uninsured for two months has been established in Florida law since the program was created in 1998 to prevent “crowd out.”
According to the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy Center for Children and Families, crowd out occurs when public funds substitute private dollars that otherwise would have been spent on health care.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBE There are nine exceptions to the crowd-out policy in Florida law that would allow those children not to have go uninsured for two months. Exceptions are made, for example, if:
- The cost of participation in an employer-sponsored health benefit plan is greater than 5% of the family’s income;
- The parent lost a job that provided an employer-sponsored health benefit plan for children;
- The parent who had health benefits coverage for the child is deceased;
- Domestic violence led to loss of coverage; or
- The employer of the parent canceled health benefits coverage for children;
Wednesday’s announcement says the change in policy will bring the program in alignment with federal policy and will take effect Jan. 1.
Kidcare is Florida’s version of the federal state children’s health insurance program. It is an optional Medicaid expansion for children whose families earn too much to qualify for the traditional Medicaid program.
Congress authorized the federal children’s health insurance program in 1997 and agreed to pay states roughly 15 percentage points more than the traditional Medicaid match rate. The Florida Legislature created Kidcare a year later. The federal government pays about 69 cents of every dollar spent on the program in Florida today.
The DeSantis administration is willing to alter its policy for children who lose private coverage but the requirement that they be precluded from enrolling in Kidcare for two months remains in state law.
While it’s willing to ignore the statutory lock-out for previously insured children, the DeSantis administration claims a different section of the Kidcare law prevents it from abiding by another federal requirement: that eligible children remain enrolled in the program for 12 months even if the family misses a monthly premium.
The DeSantis administration filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in federal court in Tampa over that mandate. The challenge has lingered with little activity.
Meanwhile, the DeSantis administration has dropped tens of thousands of children from the program for failure to pay premiums. The Florida Phoenix obtained a report that showed 43,000 children were disenrolled from Kidcare for nonpayment of premiums between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025.
Of those, 25,806 children were re-enrolled sometime during the 12 months after paying their premiums. Another 17,430 children were never re-enrolled and may have become uninsured.
The legal skirmish has prevented the state from implementing a 2023 Florida law (HB 121) that increased eligibility for the program by boosting the maximum qualifying family income from 200% to 300% of the federal poverty level. That’s the difference between earning $64,300 for a family of four versus $96,450.
In addition to eliminating the 60-day waiting period, the DeSantis administration also said it was amending the CHIP State Plan to continue certain Kidcare benefits for 30 days following release from the program.
Email Suzi Kemp in the Bureau of Medicaid Policy at Suzi.Kemp@ahca.myflorida.com for a copy of the state plan amendments.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
