According to Common Dreams website, DeSantis seems indifferent to the number of Floridians (some 250,000) who have asked for Medicaid while he is starting off his electoral campaign.

Meanwhile, his team claimed that DeSantis was able to collect over $8 million during the first 24 hours of his candidacy for the Republican nomination for 2024 elections.

Before launching his campaign formally, DeSantis traveled across the country on private planes with money from wealthy donors, and is currently facing a Federal Election Commission lawsuit for illegally transferring over $80 million from a state committee to a political super PAC supporting his claims.

In May, DeSantis’ administration insisted that he “has a robust outreach program” aimed at ensuring that people are aware of hurdles they must jump through to keep their Medicaid coverage.

However, Florida´s early data indicated that 44% of those who lost Medicaid coverage within weeks were dropped for procedural reasons, such as failing to turn in paperwork on time.

These figures have sparked off outrage from local activists, who urged DeSantis to pause the Medicaid redetermination process after hearing reports of individuals who lost their insurance without receiving any notice from the chronically understaffed Florida Department of Children and Families.

One such individual was a seven-year-old boy in remission from leukemia who now cannot access follow-up treatments.

Florida is one of a dozen states that began undoing Covid-19 pandemic-era rules that banned removing people from the coverage program during a public health emergency.

According to a HuffPost article, DeSantis “refuses to support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act for the state, which is the main reason over 12% of Floridians are uninsured.”

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