Kentuckians sue to block Medicaid work rules

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A group of 15 Medicaid recipients in Kentucky has sued the federal government to block new first-in-the-nation rules that would require them to work in order to keep their taxpayer-funded health benefits.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by three nonprofit groups on behalf of 15 Medicaid recipients from across Kentucky.

The federal government announced earlier this month that it would let Kentucky be the first state to require many of its Medicaid recipients to have a job or do volunteer work in order to keep their health coverage. The waiver would also charge monthly premiums and lock people out of their coverage for six months if they fail to notify state officials of changes in their employment and income.

State officials expect the new rules will result in 95,000 people losing Medicaid coverage for a variety of reasons over the next five years. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has signed an executive order that would automatically eliminate the state’s expanded Medicaid program if any part of the new rules is struck down in court. That would effectively end health coverage for more than 400,000 people.

“We will not be intimidated. We will defend the rights of individuals to enroll in Kentucky’s Medicaid program,” said Samuel Brooke, deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the lawsuit along with the National Health Law Program and the Kentucky Equal Justice Center.

The lawsuit names acting Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan, who visited with Bevin at the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion on Wednesday and spoke with a few reporters after their meeting.

“We believe it’s a solid program. We think it’s solid legally,” Hargan said. “We will await the result in court.”

Bevin and other Republican leaders say the state can’t afford that. He said it is his goal for Medicaid to be covering 95,000 fewer people in five years, because that means those people will have gotten jobs that pay them so much money they are not eligible for Medicaid anymore.

“Nobody will be removed at all. Nobody. Some will choose not to participate and some will choose to participate and will ride this thing right out of Medicaid, and that’s exactly what it is there for,” he said.

Bevin noted there are multiple ways for people to meet the new requirements other than getting a job. He said they could volunteer, take a job-training course or go back to school. Plus the work requirement has a number of exemptions, including the medically frail, a broad term that includes people struggling with mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.