The guidance to state Medicaid directors said CMS is committed to supporting state experiments requiring adult beneficiaries to “engage in work or community engagement activities”, such as skills training, education, searching for a job, caregiving or volunteer service. It is likely to draw strong political opposition from Democrats. “What she is in fact doing is promoting the hard bigotry of animus against poor people – the hard and shameful bigotry of health care denial based on wealth”, Weissman concluded.
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Many people can have physical or mental health problems – such as arthritis or asthma – that don’t meet the criteria for federal disability programs, but still interfere with their ability to work, Kaiser said.
In a major change in policy, the Trump administration is inviting states to attach work requirements to Medicaid that could potentially affect millions of low-income recipients.
“The other thing [that was mentioned was] that people are less depressed when they have money, well yeah, people that are on Medicaid are frequently depressed, I would imagine so”, the activist said.
LaDonna Pavetti, vice president for family income support policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a recent blog post the evidence “shows that work requirements won’t move people out of poverty and eliminate their need for health coverage”. According to government statistics, 60 percent of non-disabled, working-age adults having a job, while almost 80 percent live with families that have at least one member in the labor force.
Medicaid, an important social safety net program created five decades ago and expanded under Republican President Donald Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, has never had such conditions attached. 30% said they were watching over a relative, while 15 percent said they would school.
In November, during remarks at a National Association of Medicaid Directors conference, Verma said the federal government was “resetting” the Medicaid partnership between the federal and state governments and said the agency would give the green light to “community engagement” proposals.
Unlike the 1996 rewrite of welfare law, which explicitly mentions work as a goal, Medicaid’s law contains no such element, and critics contend rules that could deny people coverage contradict its objectives.
GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds, too, did not immediately embrace the idea but instead planned to review and consider it.
The Trump administration said Thursday it is offering a path for states that want to seek work requirements on Medicaid recipients.
A large majority of Medicaid recipients – nearly two-thirds – are children, elderly or disabled.
“While work requirements are meant to promote work among those not working, coverage for those who are working could be at risk if beneficiaries face administrative obstacles in verifying their work status or documenting an exemption”, KFF said.
The debate about work requirements doesn’t break neatly along liberal-conservative lines.
The administration is expected to approve requests from 10 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.
CMS additionally wants states to use the policy guidance to drive long-term health improvements and help Medicaid beneficiaries become independent and self-sufficient members of their communities.
Medicaid is a government program for people of all ages whose income and resources are insufficient to pay for health care.
In his State of the State address Tuesday, Gov. Phil Bryant of MS, a Republican, said he supported a “workforce requirement” for able-bodied adults on Medicaid.
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Republican state Sen. Bill Coley defended Ohio’s work requirement, saying people who are able bodied and not students should get a job so they can support themselves.
