Michigan's Medicaid Work Requirement Comes With a Racist Twist

[gollygee]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/michigans-medicaid-work-requirement-comes-with-racist-twist.html

Medicaid work requirements, the shiny new toy for Republican lawmakers across the country, may soon make their way to Michigan. But the proposal that passed the state senate in Lansing last week and is expected to sail through the house in coming days, puts a new, racist twist on the already-bad idea.

The bill, which requires proof of working 30 hours each week to maintain Medicaid coverage, contains an exemption for people residing in counties where unemployment exceeds 8.5 percent. That would leave the largely white residents of rural areas, some of which are represented by the bill’s sponsors, exempt from the onerous new rule. Meanwhile, people living in places such as Detroit and Flint would not get the same exemption despite the unemployment rate in those cities exceeding the same threshold.

Columnist Nancy Kaffer explains in the Detroit Free Press:

[Detriot’s] unemployment rate is higher than 8.5%, but the unemployment rate in surrounding Wayne County is just 5.5% — meaning Detroiters living in poverty, with a dysfunctional transit system that makes it harder to reach good-paying jobs, won’t qualify for that exemption. The same is true in Flint and the state’s other struggling cities.

[appalachiablue]

1. Racist & blatantly discriminatory. How does the county v. city criteria float.

[Matthew28]

2. It is all

about letting people die.

Imagine you get sick and can't go back to work or layed off? Need medical attention? Well, now you don't get it.

Pretty fucking evil.

[Kaleva]

3. Very few counties in rural Michgan have unemployment rates that exceed 8.5%

Last edited Mon May 7, 2018, 03:00 AM - Edit history (2)

Out of the 15 counties that are part of the rural Upper Peninsula, 2 had an unemployment rate that exceeded the proposed 8.5% benchmark. The average for all 15 counties is 5.5%.

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Unemployment-rate-in-the-UP-increased-seasonally--468165253.html

So this statement from the article is factually incorrect:

"That would leave the largely white residents of rural areas, some of which are represented by the bill’s sponsors, exempt from the onerous new rule. "

The great majority of white residents who live in rural areas and receive medicaid would not be exempt from the proposed work requirement.

Inter county transit systems, dysfunctional or not, does not exist in Upper Michigan.

From the article:

"That would leave the largely white residents of rural areas, some of which are represented by the bill’s sponsors, exempt from the onerous new rule."

Of the 4 state senate districts that cover the northern 1/3 of lower Michigan and all of Upper Michigan, only 1 senator, Wayne Schmidt, is a co-sponser of the bill.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(t0jvnglwi1y4snsqeotmiwvs))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=2018-SB-0897&query=on

Edit: And looking at the list of senate co-sponsors, one sees that most represent urban areas such as Grand Rapids, Jackson, Benton Harbor, Livonia, Oakland County and such. Districts that one would not consider to be rural. Only two of the ten co-sponsors, Wayne Schmidt and Judy Emmons, would I consider to represent rural districts.

[GusBob]

5. Something in this article didn't make sense to me either

I think this was an attempt to still allow Native Americans, who suffer from higher unemployment, to still receive Medicaid. I remember hearing this was a sticking point between the Feds and states

If true, this means the opposite of racist intent, if they are trying to help NA population.

The 2 UP counties would not happen to have Indian reservations would they?

[Kaleva]

8. Looking at a map, there appears to be 3 NA communities in counties with high unemployment

Bay Mills Indian Community in Brimley.

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa in Sault Ste Marie.

Little Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa Indians in Petoskey.

[GusBob]

9. I tried to figure it out too

Some reservations are in Baraga county, which is under 8.5%

One thing to consider is if they have large casinos that may boost employment

But yeah, I get the feeling this was done to help Native Americans. Other states are trying to exempt them from the work requirements of Medicaid

[appalachiablue]

4. Kick for viewing, more pain and discrimination coming in Michigan

Appalling.

[Kaleva]

7. Doing community service or attending school satisfies the work requirement

[roamer65]

6. Yet another reason to vote these fucking bastards out in November.

[Hamlette]

10. the same standard is used for foodstamps

able bodied adults with no children must meet a work requirement except in counties with high unemployment.

It was a real pain to administer because food stamp benefits are low and we couldn't make they work for the equivalent of minimum wage. It wasn't enforced under Obama in large part because it was so difficult to find work for these individuals for so few hours a month. Admin costs sky rocket.

They will for this program too. Plus, there are no federal funds for medicaid for able bodied adults with no children. It could be a state program OR it applies to parents or disabled adults?

[Kaleva]

11. Kind of bogus to say that this benefits white medicaid recepients.

There are 81 counties in Michigan and 17 of them have an unemployment rate greater then 8.5%. Of those 17, many have small populations such as Ontongon which has a total population of 6,780 according to the 2010 Census. Mackinac County, the county with the highest unemployment rate at 22.1%, has a total population of 11,113 according to the 2010 Census. Ergo, the vast majority of white recipients of medicaid in Michigan will not qualify for the proposed work exemption.

Doing some back of the envelope calculations, 6% of Michigan's unemployed (13,835 out of 227,000) live in the 17 counties that have an unemployment rate greater then 8.5%.

[GusBob]

13. Looking at it the other way though

Of the unemployed folks that do qualify for the exemption ( 13, 835) , most of them are white, less the Native Americans which number what, 3, 000 maybe?

The point is urban vs rural. The smaller rural counties, which are mostly white, have far fewer employment opportunities than the cities. These areas, like the upper peninsula have been economic wastelands for decades ( I lived in the UP in the 90's). The cities should and do have more job opportunities

And the article talks about public transportation being inadequate to get to work in the cities. It is completely non existent in the country.

And as far as making the exemption by volunteering or community service or going to school, I reckon that is much easier to accomplish in the cities vs out in the woods

[Kaleva]

14. But it really isn't urban vs. rural either

According to a mich.gov site, there are 61 counties in the state that are considered rural. Only 17 counties exceed the 8.5 % threshold. The great majority of medicaid recepients in rural counties would not qualify for the work exemption.

[Kaleva]

12. According to this source, Flint has an unemployment rate of 5.8%

https://ycharts.com/indicators/flint_mi_unemployment_rate_msa

Genesee County, where Flint is located, has a unemployment rate of 5.8%.

http://milmi.org/datasearch/unemployment-by-county

Detroit has an unemployment rate of 8.7%.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/detroit_mi_unemployment_rate

Wayne County, where Detroit is located, has an unemployment rate of 5%.

https://ycharts.com/indicators/wayne_county_mi_unemployment_rate

Based on the above, this part of the article in the OP isn't quite correct:

"Meanwhile, people living in places such as Detroit and Flint would not get the same exemption despite the unemployment rate in those cities exceeding the same threshold."

Flint wouldn't get the same exemption because the cities unemployment rate of 5.8% is lower then the threshold. Detroit has a lower unemployment rate then 16 of the 17 counties that exceed the proposed threshold.