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Florida Legislature Agrees To Spend Money On Limited Medicaid Extension

Photo: Jonathan Borba
Photo: Jonathan Borba

Leaders in the Florida House and Senate have agreed to spend millions of dollars on an extension of Medicaid after birth. Mothers in the state would get 1 year of coverage, up from 60 days now.
Alison Yager is the executive director of the Florida Health Justice Project, a Miami-based nonprofit dedicated to getting more people insured. Yager says this extension is a victory. "And it’s absolutely critical to improving maternal health outcomes and to addressing racial disparities in these outcomes. But this must just be a first step toward increasing healthcare access." Black mothers in Florida die at a rate more than twice that of white mothers after childbirth. Next, Governor Ron DeSantis has to agree on the extension.