Los Angeles Times
By: Michael Hiltzik
One can say this about the hoops Kentucky will require low-income residents to jump through to become eligible for Medicaid: If you were deliberately trying to come up with ways to throw people off the program, you couldn’t do better. It’s been widely reported that the “waiver” of Medicaid rules approved for the state by federal officials last week includes a first-in-the-nation work requirement.
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The punitive lockout — another provision Medicaid approved for the first time, has family healthcare advocates aghast. “All parents are subject to the lockout,” says Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. That jeopardizes their children’s health, she says, since healthy parents are more likely to make sure their children are medically cared for. Moreover, “an uninsured parent threatens the financial security of the entire family.”
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