Media Coverage
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Thousands in Arkansas lose Medicaid because of new work requirements
CNN By: Tami Luhby As many as 4,600 Medicaid recipients in Arkansas have lost their benefits for the rest of this year after failing to meet the state’s new work requirements. … Consumer advocates, however, pointed to the results as proof that work requirements do not help people find jobs. They just add more hurdles…
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The Health 202: Thousands of Arkansans may lose their health coverage. And they may not know it.
Washington Post By: Colby Itkowitz Thousands of low-income people living in Arkansas could today be stripped of their health-care coverage — some without any idea they’re going to lose it. The state is the first in the nation to begin phasing in work requirements for so-called “able-bodied” adults receiving Medicaid, the health program for low-income…
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Mississippi To Test Limits Of Medicaid Work Requirements
The Hill By: Nathaniel Weixel The Trump administration is facing a key test with Mississippi’s Medicaid program as the state seeks permission to be the first ever to impose work requirements without expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare. … Mississippi was still waiting to hear from the administration when the state made changes to their request, re-opening…
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The Health 202: Has Medicaid expansion helped or hurt the program? Depends which of these Republicans you ask
Washington Post By: Colby Itkowitz … Medicaid is currently at a crossroads. The Trump administration is pressing forward with efforts to allow states to add work requirements to be eligible for the coverage at the same time as three red states, Nebraska, Utah and Idaho, are giving voters the chance to decide on whether to implement expansion through November…
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In Arkansas, ‘Digital Redlining’ Could Leave Thousands Without Health Care
CityLab By: Sarah Holder In June, Arkansas began rolling out a controversial change to its Medicaid program. Under a new state plan, all recipients who are able to work will have to log 80 working hours each month, or risk losing access to their health care. But finding a job might not be the biggest hurdle…
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Policies are Halting and Reversing Historic Progress on Reducing Ranks of Uninsured
Modern Healthcare By: Virgil Dickson In health policy circles, President Donald Trump can be viewed as the other side of the same coin from his predecessor, Barack Obama. Both have caused seismic shifts in the healthcare landscape but in different ways. … Since Trump took office, work requirements have started to be imposed on some…
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Despite a judge’s disapproval, Trump administration is doubling down on Medicaid restrictions
Los Angeles Times By: Michael Hiltzik In the real world, it has become clear that placing restrictions such as work and reporting requirements on Medicaid is disastrous. They’re legally dubious, for one thing — as a federal judge stated in late June when he tossed out work requirements imposed in Kentucky. … “They put out…
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State won’t see $98 million in projected Medicaid savings from retroactive coverage cut
KPVI 6 News By: John Haughey During the 2018 legislative session, Florida lawmakers approved a measure that directs the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to seek authorization from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to eliminate the 90-day retroactive eligibility period for non-pregnant adults beginning July 1, 2019. … During the…
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Thousands Of People In Arkansas Are On The Brink Of Losing Medicaid Due To Work Requirements Pushed By Trump
Buzzfeed News By: Paul McLeod Over 5,000 low-income people in Arkansas are on pace to lose insurance by the end of this month, as new changes to the Medicaid system, approved by the Trump administration, start to take effect. … “My fundamental question about what’s happening in Arkansas is ‘is this a failing system or…
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Trump readies new round of controversial Medicaid changes
Politico By: Dan Diamond The Trump administration is preparing to let conservative-led states impose additional restrictions on the nation’s health program for the poor that could push tens of thousands of people off coverage, POLITICO has learned. … Advocates say the result will be disastrous for poor and working-class Americans. “The Trump administration seems intent…
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Medicaid work requirements to cause over 5,000 low-income Arkansans to lose health care
ThinkProgress By: Amanda Gomez In Arkansas, residents on Medicaid need to report 80-hours-a-month of work or service online to keep their health insurance under new requirements. So far, more than 5,000 people have failed to do so, jeopardizing their continuous coverage. … The state data also has health experts further speculating the intent of Arkansas’…
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The Health 202: Mississippi quietly amends its Medicaid work requirement waiver
Washington Post By: Colby Itkowitz Last month, there was a flurry of headlines when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reopened Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements waiver for public comment after a federal judge sent the state’s proposal back to the agency for further review. … Mississippi also removed language from its waiver related to…
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Analysis Finds Oklahoma’s Proposed Medicaid Work Requirements Would Mostly Affect Poorest Mothers
Public Radio Tulsa By: Matt Trotter More than three-fourths of the nearly 6,200 people that would be subject to Oklahoma’s proposed Medicaid work requirements are mothers. … An analysis of Oklahoma’s proposal by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and Oklahoma Policy Institute found 78 percent of the 6,193 adults the work requirements would apply to…
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Study: Oklahoma Medicaid Waiver Would Hurt Families
Medpage Today A proposal by Oklahoma Medicaid officials to implement a work requirement for Medicaid beneficiaries — including very-low-income parents — would be harmful to both children and parents enrolled in the program, a report found. “Helping single mothers — who make up a large part of Medicaid recipients — to find work is a…
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Critics: Okla. Medicaid Work Requirement Threatens Coverage
Associated Press Health-care advocates say a proposal to impose work requirements on some Oklahoma Medicaid recipients could eliminate health coverage for the state’s poorest parents. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the state’s Medicaid provider, is considering requiring some Medicaid recipients to report at least 80 hours of work per month in order to qualify for…
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Health and Human Services Secretary Azar says he learned from lawsuit and ruling on Ky. Medicaid plan, will keep pushing for it
Kentucky Health News Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that the Trump administration had learned from the ruling that struck down his approval of work and other “community engagement” requirements for 460,000 Kentuckians on Medicaid, and would keep pushing for such requirements. … Andy Schneider, a professor of health policy at Georgetown…
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A winning theme for Democrats? Kids.
Washington Post By: Catherine Rampell Democrats have been casting about for a winning theme this November. Here’s one suggestion: Kids. After all, despite once declaring themselves the party of family values, Republican politicians have more recently ceded this territory. The GOP is now the party of state-sanctioned child abuse, of taking health care away from poor…
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The Health 202: Trump administration ‘undeterred’ by court ruling against Medicaid work requirements
Washington Post By: Colby Itkowitz Describing it as a “blow,” Alex Azar, the nation’s top health official, spoke publicly for the first time on Thursday about a federal judge’s decision to block Medicaid work requirements. … Critics of the work requirement see the push as part of a public-relations campaign by conservatives to change the…
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Red States May Be Ready to Expand Medicaid — In Exchange for Work
Pew Stateline By: Christine Vestal Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin says he doesn’t want more able-bodied poor people to get Medicaid in his state unless a portion of them are required to work. And when Republicans in Virginia agreed to expand Medicaid this year, they also said recipients who are able would have to work.…
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Is there renewed hope for Medicaid expansion in Missouri?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch By: Samantha Liss Health care advocates in Missouri are closely watching successful efforts to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot in other red states. Last year, voters in Maine approved expanding Medicaid through a ballot initiative, the first state to gain approval through a public vote. … “Interestingly, Medicaid has always polled…