<\/strong>some may no longer qualify for other reasons, such as an increase in income.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMelissa Mazaeda, vice president of care coordinator J&M Support Coordination in Florida, says procedural mishaps have been particularly problematic for people with developmental disabilities, who often require extra assistance to complete the renewal process. Advocates for the disabled say far too many were lumped into the wrong Medicaid categories, were dropped with little notice and didn\u2019t receive timely help when they were disenrolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mazaeda said states should never have kicked the developmentally disabled off Medicaid in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are never going to not need Medicaid. You don\u2019t get over Down syndrome. There is no cure for cerebral palsy. You don\u2019t get better from spina bifida or autism,\u2019\u201d Mazaeda said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to require lifelong services. And the basis of that is Medicaid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The National Health Law program \u2014 a nonprofit that advocates for the health rights of low-income and underserved individuals \u2014 has filed civil rights complaints in Colorado, Texas and Washington, D.C., alleging discrimination against people with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Florida, a class action lawsuit accuses the state\u2019s unwinding process of being not just sloppy, but illegal. Plaintiffs allege the state violated the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of Floridians, ending coverage \u201cwithout adequate notice\u201d and with \u201clittle or no explanation of the actual reason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the 1.9 million people in Florida who lost Medicaid coverage, according to KFF, patient advocates estimate that thousands of disabled people like Eakin have been affected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her case, the state sent several digital notices asking for additional information, but she wasn\u2019t able to read them because she\u2019s legally blind. The notices were not sent to her care coordinators, who could have helped her with the paperwork before it was too late, according to her care team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir process is really bad for individuals who have vision impairments and who are disabled,\u201d Eakin said. \u201cEspecially if you don\u2019t have computer skills, and that\u2019s the only way that you\u2019re being notified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Dunedin, Florida, Paul \u2014 who is 57 and has an intellectual disability, a pacemaker and a seizure disorder \u2014 says his Medicaid coverage was dropped in March. Paul asked that his last name be withheld for fear of retribution from state officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only communication he received from the state: a Medicaid renewal notice last November that stated he was approved for a year, according to Paul and his care team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All payments for his care in a group home and staff for day activities were cut off until his coverage was reinstated at the end of August. No explanation was provided by the state during the lapse, Paul said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point, the stress became so severe Paul was taken to the emergency room for a panic attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat was the worst thing I ever had,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI worried I would lose everybody, everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NBC News repeatedly requested comment from officials with the Department of Children and Families, which verifies Medicaid eligibility in Florida, and from Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At an Aug. 21 news conference, DeSantis was asked by NBC News why so many Floridians who should still be on Medicaid were losing coverage during the unwinding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure that\u2019s true,\u201d DeSantis said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The secretary of the state Department of Children and Families, Shevaun Harris, then stepped in, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not factual.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re committed to ensuring that anyone who is eligible maintains coverage,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the disenrollments, Mazaeda said, have been \u201cunprecedented\u201d \u2014 and ongoing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s no organization tracking how many people with disabilities have been dropped from Medicaid nationwide, although patient advocates estimate that in Florida thousands of disabled people have unfairly lost their coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sept. 1, within her agency alone, 11 more of Mazaeda\u2019s clients lost their Medicaid coverage. \u201cThere has never been this amount of people with developmental disabilities on this program being disenrolled from Medicaid in the over 30 years that I have been doing this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are people who \u201calready have so many challenges in their lives, so many worries and obstacles they endure,\u201d she said. \u201cDropping them from Medicaid has added another level of stress to their lives that could have been prevented, and should have been remedied by now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Lauren Eakin\u2019s Medicaid coverage was restored within the last week, but not before her home and community-based provider, Kimberly Bryant, was forced to take out roughly $14,000 in personal loans to pay for the limited hours of caregiving per day that Eakin received during the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy employees need their money,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cThey can\u2019t just sit here and wait for months without continuing to get paid. And that\u2019s pretty much what they left us to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear whether the state will pay her back for the services provided during the coverage lapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, she says, \u201cI couldn\u2019t walk away. They would\u2026 what? Drop her off at the hospital? Where would you drop her? That\u2019s my question. Would I just not show up, and she just sits here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eakin says she\u2019s lost faith in a system that\u2019s supposed to help her live life to the fullest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Lauren Eakin is legally blind and confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy. For years, Eakin, 34, lived in her own apartment with the help of caregivers who assist her with nearly everything. This summer, she lost much of her relative independence when the state of Florida revoked her essential Medicaid coverage. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[1525,30338,1437,2284,30339],"class_list":["post-31797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-blind","tag-cerebral-palsy","tag-florida","tag-medicaid","tag-wheelchair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31799,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31797\/revisions\/31799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}