TAMPA, Florida — Spanish speakers are disproportionately facing dropped calls and hours-long delays when trying to secure health care coverage at Florida's Medicaid call centers, a recent study found.
The study was conducted by Unidos US, a Hispanic civil rights advocacy group, between July and August 2023 as millions of lower-income Americans are facing a potential loss of Medicaid coverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government prevented states from removing eligible people from Medicaid. But that policy ended in April, meaning millions of families were left scrambling to submit the proper paperwork to keep their healthcare coverage.
This created an influx of calls and, in turn, long wait times, at Medicaid call centers across the country. In some cases, federal officials sent warnings to states that their lengthy call center wait times were causing people to hang up — and give up — as they attempt to renew coverage.
The Unidos US study, however, found that those lengthy wait times are worse for some families than others.
Of the 40 calls the organization made to a Medicaid call center, the average English-speaking caller had to wait 36 minutes compared to the nearly two-and-a-half hours the average Spanish speaker had to wait to speak to a representative.
That is if their call wasn't dropped before then.
Almost a third, or 30%, of all Spanish-language calls were disconnected before the caller reached a person compared to only 10% of English speakers who were disconnected, the organization found.
According to data from the non-profit KFF, 408,000 Floridians have lost Medicaid coverage this year. More than half of those people are still eligible for Medicaid but were dropped from the program due to "procedural reasons" like not submitting necessary paperwork.
And it's likely that many of these losses are affecting children. According to Unidos US, out of the five million people on Medicaid in Florida, three million are children.
Why call centers are so important
The Florida Department of Children and Families told NBC News that 92% of Medicaid applications and determinations are processed through an online site accessible 24 hours a day in English, Spanish and Creole.
"Our data shows that Florida’s approach to redeterminations is solid, and the media is grasping at woke straws," the department's deputy chief of staff Mallory McManus told the news outlet. "Once again left leaning advocacy groups are cherry-picking data to fit their false narrative, as the data shows that ethnicity is not a factor in a person’s ability to access and retain Medicaid benefits."
However, not everyone has reliable internet access.
"Persons of color are less likely to have broadband or internet access, or transportation or jobs that permit the time and access needed to meet with Medicaid enrollment staff in person, and therefore may rely more on call centers," the Office for Civil Rights wrote.