Trump Administration Releasing Guidelines on Medicaid Work Requirements
The Trump administration will release guidelines soon for requiring Medicaid recipients to work, The Hill reported. The guidelines will tell the states how to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs. The states will decide whether to pursue work requirements. If they do, they must apply for a waiver from the federal government.
9.8 million non-elderly Medicaid enrollees do not work, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Thirty-six percent said they weren’t working due to illness or disability. Thirty percent said they were caring for a family member, while 15 percent said they were going to school.
Medicaid Work Requirements
Seema Verma proposed the change. In a speech late last year, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services criticized Obamacare for “expanding Medicaid to ‘able-bodied’ adults.” That group should be expected to work, she said.
Not expecting them to work “is a tragic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations consistently espoused by the prior administration,” said Verma. “Those days are over.”
Some Democrats balk at the idea of making able-bodied Medicaid recipients work. They say people who can’t meet the requirements will lose their coverage. The guidelines may also discourage people from enrolling.
The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities’ Hannah Katch said the guidance would fundamentally change how Medicaid covers people. Such guidance “would be a watershed moment.”
The States Know Best
But the states know best how to address the unique needs of their people, wrote a CMS spokesperson Thursday in an email. “That is why we support … efforts at the state level to enhance the lives of Medicaid recipients and help them achieve self-sufficiency.”
The guidance is expected to be released within weeks.
Nine states have applied to require work requirements. Wisconsin has also asked to require drug testing of Medicaid recipients.
CMS believes that meaningful work is essential to those living with disabilities, said Verma. “Why would we not believe that the same is true for working age, able-bodied Medicaid enrollees?”
