New Report Finds Florida’s Medicaid Call Center Continues to Fail Families, Putting Health Coverage at Risk for Thousands

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As Floridians face rising housing, insurance and food costs, call center breakdowns add to mounting pressure on working families. 

Miami, FL – April 24, 2025 – A new report from UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, finds that Florida’s Medicaid call center continues to fall dangerously short in serving the families who rely on it, leaving too many Floridians, especially Spanish speakers and those without internet access, at risk of losing vital health care coverage. Despite improvements for English-speaking callers, serious disparities persist, with widespread call disconnections, excessive wait times and systemic inaccessibility compounding the financial and health challenges already gripping the state. 

From September 2024 to February 2025, UnidosUS conducted an in-depth analysis by placing hundreds of calls to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) Medicaid line. The findings underscore a system in crisis — one that threatens the well-being of all Floridians, especially those living paycheck to paycheck. 

“With the skyrocketing cost of living in Florida, nobody can afford to spend hours on hold or lose their coverage because the state can’t answer the phone,” said UnidosUS Florida State Director Jared Nordlund. “Whether you’re a senior in a rural area, a working parent in a tourist town or a new immigrant navigating the system, this affects us all.” 

Key Findings from the Report: 

  • 45% of Spanish-language calls were disconnected before reaching a live agent, nine times the disconnection rate for English speakers (5%)
  • Average wait time for Spanish speakers was 54 minutes, compared to 13 minutes for English-speaking callers
  • Some Spanish-language callers waited as long as 2 hours and 23 minutes to speak with someone
  • More than 1.3 million Floridians lost Medicaid coverage between March 2023 and October 2024, with 64% of those terminations due to procedural errors, not eligibility
  • Many callers, particularly those in low-income, rural and immigrant communities, have no other means of contacting the state due to limited internet access or digital literacy
  • Over 480,000 Latino Medicaid enrollees in Florida have limited English proficiency, most of whom are U.S. citizens
  • Industry benchmarks recommend that 80% of calls be answered within 20 seconds, and abandonment rates be kept below 10%. Florida’s system falls drastically short of these standards. 

These are not isolated problems. From Jacksonville to Immokalee, across cities and rural communities, Floridians are facing the same bottlenecks and bureaucratic breakdowns — all while grappling with some of the highest costs of housing, insurance and utilities in the country. 

UnidosUS is urging state leaders to implement immediate reforms to Florida’s Medicaid call center infrastructure. These reforms include hiring more bilingual staff, increasing call handling capacity and adopting clear service standards to reduce wait times and disconnections. 

“Health care access is a basic necessity — not a luxury or partisan issue,” Nordlund added. “We must ensure every Floridian, no matter their language, income or ZIP code, can keep the coverage they qualify for without unnecessary red tape.” 

Methodology 

To assess the accessibility and performance of Florida’s Medicaid call center, UnidosUS conducted 348 test calls between September 2024 and February 2025, split evenly between English and Spanish language options. Calls were made at various times of day and days of the week to reflect a range of caller experiences. Metrics tracked included wait times, disconnection rates, time to reach a live agent, and language-specific disparities. This analysis builds on UnidosUS’s previous reports published in 2023 and 2024 and aligns with industry benchmarks for call center performance.