HHS finalized rules on Wednesday that aim to keep kids enrolled, but they will take a full year to be fully implemented, Becerra said.

For children deemed ineligible for Medicaid, there are other options.

Florida’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, KidCare, offers free, subsidized and full-pay insurance for kids whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

When children lose Medicaid coverage their application is supposed to automatically be forwarded to KidCare for review. But as Florida’s Medicaid enrollment of children has shrunk by 460,000, KidCare enrollment only increased by about 55,000 in the last year.

It’s unclear whether many of the youths who lost Medicaid now have other insurance.

A state effort to expand KidCare to higher-income families, predicted to expand coverage to over 42,000 uninsured kids, was supposed to take effect Jan. 1 under a law passed by the Legislature last year.

It was first delayed to April because the state failed to submit the required paperwork on time. Now, it has been delayed indefinitely while Florida sues the federal government over a new rule that would require states to keep children on Kidcare for 12 months even if their families miss a premium payment.

Florida filed the suit on Feb. 1. A hearing is scheduled for April 18 in federal court in Tampa.

Florida is one of just 12 states that lock out children if their families don’t pay premiums, a practice banned by the feds’ new rules issued Wednesday.

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