Orlando pastors spread news of looming Medicaid loss to their communities

The Rev. Sharon Riley is part of a growing number of church leaders who believe their duty to congregants doesn’t stop when they leave the pulpit.

Within the last 10 to 15 years, church leaders, particularly in minority communities, have increasingly used parts of their budgets to share health resources and even create dedicated health ministries after observing health inequities, Riley said.

Most recently, Riley and other pastors have taken on the responsibility of preparing their congregants for a looming change in Medicaid coverage.

“The reason it was such a push for me is because of health challenges that I saw within my own family,” Riley said. “Because we gather every week … we wanted to take advantage of passing on the information so that people could get access to health care because we were finding when people were getting sick or they had medical needs or concerns … they didn’t have access to care, didn’t know where to go.”

Her church, Agape Perfecting Praise and Worship, is in southwest Orlando, an area that, compared to the rest of Orange County, has among the highest numbers of deaths from chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, according to Florida Department of Health data. Both her mother and grandmother were diagnosed with diabetes before they died.

On top of struggling with chronic health issues, some of Riley’s congregants rely on Medicaid.

During the pandemic, the government offered additional funding for Medicaid programs, which provide federal and state-funded health insurance to poor and disabled people. In exchange, states weren’t allowed to stop providing Medicaid coverage to anyone, even if they became ineligible.

Those protections end April 1. Florida’s Department of Children and Families over the next 12 months will restart the regular renewal process, redetermine recipients’ eligibility and potentially purge more than 1 million of the record 5.7 million Floridians currently on the Medicaid roster, sending out letters, emails, texts and calls with their decisions. Florida DCF is urging families to make sure their contact information is up-to-date on their ACCESS Florida account.

Some Florida residents will be automatically renewed, but some will receive notices 45 days before their renewal date with instructions they must follow in order to keep coverage. Some may be purged in error, in which case they will need to make an appeal to the Office of the Inspector General.

Some people, if removed from Florida’s rolls, are going to fall into the Medicaid “coverage gap” and lose access to health care.

Adults in the gap make too much money to meet their state’s Medicaid eligibility requirements but still live below the poverty line, which means they can’t qualify for federal tax credits toward health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

About 415,000 low-income people in the state lived in this gap prior to the pandemic, a number that will grow when redeterminations resume.

Federal funding was offered to Florida to expand coverage to this group. Florida was one of the minority of states that chose not to do so.

When Rev. Wendell Webster of New Bethel AME Church in Orlando heard about this, he knew he, too, had to inform the many congregants in his church who are on Medicaid that this is coming.

“My father who was in the ministry would often say that the church is a hospital for the sick,” Webster said. “Yes, we preach Jesus, but we also do believe that there has to be a holistic approach to living as God would have us to live. And part of that definitely includes being able to have adequate health coverage.”

In addition to the current effort, the health ministry of New Bethel AME Church takes steps such as offering nutritional cooking classes and bringing in guest speakers to talk about health topics.

Agape Perfecting Praise and Worship also has a more extensive health ministry that has partnered with organizations like the Center for Multicultural Wellness and Prevention to help treat high rates of AIDS and HIV in the community and referred young women with fibroid tumors to Planned Parenthood for affordable care. The church has also partnered with the Sisters Network, a group that raises awareness of Black women’s high breast cancer mortality rate, which is largely caused by a lack of access to early screenings.

Beyond Orlando, other health ministry leaders are also providing their congregants with a variety of services, including help with the coming Medicaid transition.

The Rev. Greg James of Life Church International Center in Tallahassee has helped organize efforts in his church to destigmatize mental health treatment, dispel COVID-19 misinformation and raise awareness of illnesses that disproportionately impact the Black community.

He has a radio broadcast on a gospel station where he plans to devote a show to discuss changes to Medicaid enrollment.

“This is a vital issue, and I’m grateful to be a part of not just having a health ministry but to add a more informative and more knowledgeable component to it,” James said.

Advocates for the end of continuous enrollment say some people still on Medicaid no longer need it, Tom Wallace, deputy secretary for Medicaid at the state Agency for Health Care Administration, told a Florida Senate panel in January.

“I have actually received calls from people saying, ‘I don’t want to be on Medicaid, take me off. I shouldn’t be on Medicaid anymore because I’ve got other employee insurance,'” Wallace said.

There are also alternatives, such as Florida KidCare, a low-cost insurance program for kids. People ineligible for “full” Medicaid may also qualify for Florida’s Medically Needy Program, which partially subsidizes health care costs. The Florida Department of Health – Orange offers assistance such as no or low-cost breast cancer screenings.

Ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com; @CECatherman Twitter