Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin lost again in court in his bid to install work requirements for Medicaid on Monday, another setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to promote work requirements across the country.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed an effort by Bevin to get a challenge to the state’s work requirements heard in Kentucky to invalidate a June ruling by a District of Columbia federal judge striking down the work requirements on the grounds that they are arbitrary.
Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the U.S. District for Eastern Kentucky tossed the governor’s lawsuit, filed against 16 state residents who had originally filed a lawsuit back in January to prevent the work rules from going into effect, because the governor couldn’t prove the state was harmed by the case being heard in D.C. instead of Kentucky.
Bevin has previously said that if the court strikes down the work requirements then he would end the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare because of budget constraints.
But the judge ruled that any decision to end the expansion would be Bevin’s alone and “not a result of any conduct by these defendants.”
In June, the D.C.-based judge blocked implementation of the work requirements on the grounds that the Trump administration’s decision to add the restrictions did not consider whether they would help bring medical care to citizens, which is a key mandate of the program.
The Trump administration has worked with other states to install work rules and officials have said they will continue to push for work requirements in Kentucky despite the court ruling.
Kentucky is one of four states that have gotten federal approval for work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries. The work requirements force the eligible beneficiaries to complete 20 hours of either work, job training or education and volunteering to continue to get Medicaid benefits.
Arkansas, Indiana, and New Hampshire are the other states that got approval for work requirements.
A group of Medicaid beneficiaries in Arkansas is also suing to overturn the work requirement program in that state.
