Strengthening Medicaid
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Medicaid provides essential health services to over 5 million low-income people with disabilities, the elderly, children, families and pregnant women.
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However, Florida has one of the most restrictive Medicaid programs in the country. ​
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•The Florida IBudget Medicaid waiver, which pays for home-and-community-based services for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities (IDD).
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The iBudget Program has a waitlist of 22,734 people, nearly the same number as the people currently being served.
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The wait time on the waitlist is at minimum 7 years and often a decade or longer.
What Can Florida Do?
Florida Voices for Health is working with our partners statewide to make these policy recommendations a reality in Florida:
Close the Coverage Gap
Medicaid expansion in Florida would cover nearly 500,000 Floridians earning below the poverty level. It would also save Florida’s budget $200 million a year, while securing more rural hospitals.
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Fully Fund Services for Floridians with Disabilities
Currently, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities do not participate in the state’s estimating conference where budgets are decided. For years this has been a major contributor to APD’s underfunding and limited services for Floridians with disabilities. Allowing APD to participate in the estimating conference would allow them to negotiate for a budget closer to their level of need based on the number of people they serve.
