Top-ranking Democrats have asked the government’s top oversight body to study the costs associated with setting up Medicaid work requirements for certain Medicaid beneficiaries.
The requirements have been approved by the Trump administration in Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, and several other states have applied to implement similar measures. They stipulate that as a condition of being enrolled in the program, someone must work, take classes, or volunteer for at least 20 hours a week, but tend to contain exemptions for caregivers, people with addictions, pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities.
Critics have warned they would impose overly burdensome paperwork on people who are in the program, causing people to lose coverage for failing to keep up. They argue the programs will carry costly administrative burdens for government workers to check on the work status of enrollees.
The letter to the Government Accountability Office, from Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., tasks the agency with assessing these costs. It specifies that Democrats also want to receive information on other Medicaid provisions, including lockout periods and checking on premium payments.
They requested GAO investigate the federal costs associated with allowing the state to hire staff and create websites to track beneficiaries, as well as contracts brokered with private contractors to set them up. The letter stipulated details about whether the Trump administration considered these costs when approving work requirements and how it was going about tracking these costs.
Lawmakers who back the requirements believe they will assist in rolling people out of the program and helping them instead obtain a job that offers private medical insurance. They have also used it as an avenue to lower costs because they expect fewer people will be enrolled.
But the Democrats who wrote the letter to the GAO said they were concerned that the administrative costs would become “substantial and unknown” and would come at the trade-off of “providing health services to beneficiaries.”
“If CMS continues to approve work requirements and other restrictions on Medicaid, the consequences could be severe for federal spending and the sustainability of the Medicaid program,” they wrote.
