Federal Public Health Emergency Extension Means More Money For Florida
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- As the numbers of COVID-19 infections continue to rise, President Joe Biden's administration has extended a federal public-health emergency that provides additional money to Florida and other states.
Florida and the other states will continue to receive a 6.2 percentage-point bump in the amount of federal matching dollars they receive to fund the Medicaid program.
The public-health emergency has been in place since January 2020 and was first issued by former President Donald Trump's administration.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra issued an extension Monday.
Each 90-day extension of the public-health emergency brings hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal funds to Florida. But while it receives the additional money, Florida cannot remove most Medicaid beneficiaries from the program.
As of June 30, Florida had roughly 4.84 million people enrolled in Medicaid, which is jointly funded by the state and federal governments.
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