Medicaid work mandate: Common sense reform or unfair burden?
Whether that's a commonsense approach or an added burden that will end up costing many Americans their health insurance will now be debated in states across the country considering the landmark change to the nation's largest health insurance program.
To Medicaid recipients such as
He has been unemployed for the last four or five years and has received Medicaid for the past two. He sees a behavioral health specialist to deal with anxiety and said Medicaid has made a big difference in his life.
Penister, 36, said he is not yet ready to rejoin the workforce and is unnerved by the prospect of potentially losing Medicaid. His state,
"Would it be advantageous for me even to go into the workforce instead of me therapeutically transitioning to a state where I'm actually ready to perform in the workforce?" he said. He compared it to someone recovering from a car accident "and saying that in order for me to give you this medication, you got to go to work. Well, I can't."
Yet his story also helps make the case for those who favor some type of commitment from working-age adults who benefit from Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for poor and lower-income Americans.
Penister's status is unclear, because
The program, created in 1965 for families on welfare and low-income seniors, now covers more than 70 million people, or about 1 in 5 Americans. It expanded under President
President
Ten states had previously asked the federal government for the requirement waiver, and others are sure to follow. On Friday,
Bevin has said he expects the move to save the state more than
Critics of the policy shift point to the number of people who could lose coverage, even if they meet the new requirements.
"We just have concerns that a lot of people who still are legitimately eligible, who do meet the work requirement, will end up falling off the rolls because they don't know how to verify or there's a technology glitch," said
In
Supporters of the work requirement cast it as a way to move more people into the workforce and eventually off the program.
"These are people that are either underemployed or do not have sufficient training, and this is a mechanism to put into place to make sure that the health care coverage is really a bridge to training and better employment,"
States face limits on how far they can go. The administration has said states should exempt pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly, and that they should take into account hardships for people in areas with high unemployment or for people caring for children or elderly relatives. States also have to make accommodations for people in treatment for drug and alcohol problems.
In
"They aren't about getting people back to work. Instead, it's a political move to take health care away from people who have already fallen on hard times," Democratic House Speaker
Ehlke reported from
Enrollment in Washington state’s health-care exchange on pace to exceed last year
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