What Medicaid Recipients And Other Low-Income Adults Think About Medicaid Work Requirements

To make the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion more politically palatable, a number of conservative states have used 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers to implement personal responsibility focused policies. These waivers have been used, for example, to charge Medicaid recipients premiums and to institute cost sharing above statutory limits. Under the Obama administration, four states applied for waivers to integrate work requirements into their Medicaid programs, arguing work requirements would help recipients move out of poverty and gain access to private coverage. The Obama administration denied these requests because they argued work requirements could “undermine access…and do not support the objectives of the Medicaid program.” Soon after taking office, the Trump administration indicated its support for Medicaid work requirements. In March 2017, Tom Price, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), sent a letter to state governors stating that, “It is our intent to use existing Section 1115 demonstration authority to review and approve meritorious innovations that build on the human dignity that comes with training, employment and independence.” CMS is currently considering five 1115 waiver requests that include work requirement provisions. Kentucky submitted its waiver request to CMS in August 2016. Its work requirement was described as the “c...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Quality Kentucky HEALTH Medicaid work requirements Section 1115 Waivers Source Type: blogs