Certain Medicaid beneficiaries in Michigan would be required to work, volunteer, or attend classes as a condition of staying enrolled in the program under a waiver filed Monday to the Trump administration.
Michigan officials said that if the plan is not approved within a year then it would end its Medicaid expansion, which provided coverage paid for by the government to 655,000 people.
Under the plan, certain Medicaid recipients would need to work or train for work 20 hours a week beginning in 2020, and would need to log their hours with the state. Twelve exemptions are provided, including for people with disabilities, pregnant women, children, seniors, caregivers, and people with chronic health issues.
Critics of the plans have said that the requirements are burdensome and that recipients may be complying but are unable to record their work. The Trump administration encouraged the plans but the one it approved in Kentucky was struck down in court. A lawsuit has been waged against the work requirement in Arkansas, where 4,574 people had not complied with the requirements and were set to lose coverage.
Defenders of work requirements say Medicaid could help people find employment so that they no longer need to be covered by the program, which is offered in most states to people making roughly $16,000 a year or less.
Indiana and New Hampshire also have had applications approved, and others are still being considered. It isn’t clear whether the Trump administration will continue approving work requirements in states after the court rulings.
Under Obamacare, states were allowed to expand government-funded Medicaid coverage to people of under specific income level, of roughly $16,000 a year, regardless of whether they are working or have money saved. Medicaid otherwise covers pregnant women, people with disabilities, people in nursing homes and children, a group that members of the Trump administration and conservatives say should be the focus of the program.
