Since June of 2018, more than 18,000 low-income Arkansans have lost their Medicaid coverage because of state-imposed work requirements. Last month, the state decided to expand the requirements to another 40,000 enrollees by adding 19- to 29-year-olds to the population that has to report at least 80 hours of work per month. Citing those losses, congressional Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration halt Medicaid work requirements.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone rebuked the administration for its "disregard of Congressional intent" as expressed in the Medicaid statute and for granting waivers without requiring that states have policies in place to track the impact of work requirements. Wyden and Pallone voiced opposition to the implementation of these waivers before the administration granted Arkansas', the first one implemented.
They write, "We unfortunately are now seeing these concerns play out in real life in the state of Arkansas where thousands of individuals have been forced off and locked out of their Medicaid coverage" in their letter to the administration. "If you think about the Medicaid statute, the goal is to cover people and insure that people who are in need have access to quality affordable health care; these waivers are designed to purge people from the rolls," CJ Young, Energy and Commerce Committee press secretary for health issues, told CNN.
Fourteen additional states have requested work requirement waivers, and five of them have been granted, though in at least one of the states receiving them, Michigan, the governor's seat switching to a Democrat has halted its implementation pending alterations. In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is fighting to have the legislature's lame-duck approval of work requirements reversed.