The head of Medicare and Medicaid on Tuesday defended a controversial Medicaid work requirements program in Arkansas that led to more than 4,000 people losing coverage, saying that the reforms have helped get people out of poverty.
“It about not just saying: ‘Here is your healthcare card,’” said Seema Verma, head of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speaking at the Atlantic Fest. “We are trying to say that these individuals are living in poverty and they need more than that.”
Arkansas is the first state to implement work requirements for Medicaid, and one of four who have received federal approval to create such a program.
Verma said that the goal of the program is to give people “the skills they need and matching them with the jobs that are available.”
[Also read: Seema Verma becomes the latest Trump official to criticize ‘Medicare for all’]
The program requires certain able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries to spend 20 hours a week either working, job training, seeking education, or volunteering.
However, critics have said that Arkansas’ implementation of the program was flawed since it required affected Medicaid beneficiaries to go online and log in their hours, which can be difficult for people who are not computer literate.
Verma said last week that the Trump administration would continue to consider and approve work requirement requests from states.
There are eight states that have asked for installing work requirements: Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin.
There are three other states besides Arkansas that have gotten approval for work requirements: Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Indiana.
A federal judge in June blocked Kentucky’s work requirement program because of concerns over coverage losses.
