Trump administration opens door to let states impose Medicaid work requirements
Trump administration opens door to let states impose Medicaid work requirements
By Amy Goldstein January 11 at 6:43 AM
The Trump administration issued guidance to states early Thursday that will allow them to compel people to work or prepare for jobs in order to receive Medicaid for the first time in the half-century history of this pillar of the nation’s social safety net.
The letter to state Medicaid directors opens the door for states to cut off Medicaid benefits to Americans unless they have a job, are in school, are a caregiver or participate in other approved forms of “community engagement” — an idea that some states had broached over the past several years but that the Obama administration had consistently rebuffed.
The new policy comes as 10 states are already lined up, waiting for federal permission to impose work requirements on able-bodied adults in the program. Three other states are contemplating them. Health officials could approve the first waiver — probably for Kentucky — as soon as Friday, according to two people with knowledge of the process.
The guidance represents a fundamental and much-disputed recalibration of the compact between the government and poor Americans for whom Medicaid coverage provides a crucial pathway to health care.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-opens-door-to-let-states-impose-medicaid-work-requirements/2018/01/11/d6374482-f628-11e7-a9e3-ab18ce41436a_story.html?utm_term=.66bdb46b81cd
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