Governing - Since the Trump administration greenlit state governments in January to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs, many conservative states have seized on the opportunity. The concept of making work a requirement for people living in poverty to get free health insurance is a controversial one. But the exceptions to these work requirements are generating controversy of their own.
In Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, Republicans -- who control the legislature in those states -- have proposed exempting counties with high unemployment from the work requirements.
Supporters argue that work requirements will incentivize people to get or stay employed and eventually stop using Medicaid. Generally speaking, the counties that would be relieved from the proposed exemptions lack jobs and public transportation. RELATED Are Work Requirements for Medicaid Doomed? Implementing States' Medicaid Wishes Won't Be Cheap What Happens to People Who Fail Work Requirements? Despite Farm Bill Fail, Advocates of Food Stamp Work Requirements Succeed Elsewhere Work Requirements May Be Just the Beginning of Medicaid Changes Under Trump
Critics, which are mostly Democrats, don't like that work requirements would leave some people uninsured -- but they also don't like the unemployment exemption because they say it would give a pass to predominantly white rural counties and not urban areas with majority-black populations.
No comments:
Post a Comment