A group of three Arkansas residents sued in federal court Tuesday to end Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirements, the latest court challenge to the controversial rules.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that the work requirements for able-bodied residents in the state were put in place without congressional approval and violate the Constitution.
“Almost 60 percent of people covered by Medicaid expansion in the state already work, and nearly all the rest either have a disability or look after family,” said Ken De Liban, an attorney with Legal Aid of Arkansas, one of three groups representing the plaintiffs. “These work requirements and the online-only reporting system threaten everyone’s care.”
The lawsuit charges that the administration’s bid to expand work requirements to able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries is part of an effort to undermine Obamacare and thus violates the constitutional requirement for the executive branch to faithfully execute the nation’s laws.
It also charges that the administration doesn’t have the authority to impose the work requirements without Congress.
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that the mandatory online reporting system for the requirements unfairly kicked some beneficiaries out of the program.
There were 7,464 people who didn’t satisfy the reporting requirements, the state said. The state’s Medicaid program covers nearly 1 million people.
But Arkansas reported on Tuesday that an additional 5,258 people didn’t report they completed work requirements to remain eligible for Medicaid in July.
The state reported on Tuesday that 12,722 people failed to report the 80 hours of either, work, school or volunteering for the month of July. That is an increase above the 7,464 that didn’t meet the work requirements in June.
The lawsuit claims that one of the plaintiffs, Charles Gresham, couldn’t report his work activities online without help from his fiancé and Legal Aid of Arkansas.
“Up until recently, Medicaid coverage has been mostly easy for him to obtain, but the Arkansas Works notices and materials he has received in the past few months have been confusing and difficult to understand,” the lawsuit said.
Two other legal groups, the National Health Law Program and the Southern Poverty Law Center, are joining Legal Aid of Arkansas in representing the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit comes after a federal judge in June rejected Kentucky’s work requirement program. A group of 15 Medicaid beneficiaries in Kentucky filed the lawsuit.
The National Health Law Program and Southern Poverty Law Center represented the plaintiffs in that lawsuit too.
The judge found that Kentucky’s push for work requirements didn’t consider whether it would bring medical care to citizens, one of the goals of the program.
