Albuquerque Journal

Work OK’d for Ark. Medicaid

Third state to add restrictio­ns for coverage for the poor

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Trump administra­tion on Monday approved Arkansas’ plan to require thousands of people on its Medicaid expansion program to work or volunteer, making Arkansas the third state allowed to impose such restrictio­ns on health care coverage for the poor.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that the requiremen­t for Arkansas’ program, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents, had been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. More than 285,000 people are on the Arkansas program, which was created as an alternativ­e to expanding traditiona­l Medicaid under the federal health law.

“This is not about punishing anyone,” the Republican governor said at a news conference with Seema Verma, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “It’s about giving people an opportunit­y to work. It’s to give them the training that they need. It’s to help them to move out of poverty and up the economic ladder.”

The Trump administra­tion in January said it would allow states to impose work requiremen­ts on Medicaid recipients. It has already approved proposals from Kentucky and Indiana.

The new requiremen­t will eventually affect nondisable­d, childless adults on the plan who are 19 to 49 years old. This year, the change will affect about 39,000 people aged 30 to 49 years old, though it wasn’t immediatel­y clear how many people will be affected next year, when the requiremen­t is imposed on participan­ts aged 19 to 29 years old, according to the state Department of Human Services.

People affected by the change will be required to work or participat­e in other activities such as volunteeri­ng or vocational training for 20 hours a week.

Arkansas’ proposal will not affect people on its traditiona­l Medicaid program, which covers about 645,000 people statewide.

Several other states have requests for work requiremen­ts pending with the Trump administra­tion. Critics of the policy have called it unnecessar­y and say it could lead to people losing coverage, even if they meet the requiremen­ts.

“We don’t think that it will be any more effective than if we had just offered Arkansans the necessary support they need to overcome barriers to employment without punitive measures,” said Marquita Little, health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

The work requiremen­t’s approval was seen as key to winning support for reauthoriz­ing the Medicaid expansion by state lawmakers in Arkansas. The state budget bill for Medicaid and the expansion require three-fourths support in both chambers of the Legislatur­e, and vacancies in the Arkansas Senate have left supporters shy of the votes they’ll need.

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