Federal judge strikes down Medicaid work rule in Michigan

LANSING, Mich. — A federal judge on Wednesday invalidated work requirements for hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients in Michigan, one of two states where rules had been in effect after court challenges elsewhere.

The short order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., was handed down weeks after a federal appeals court upheld his decision to strike down Arkansas’ requirement that low-income people work or do other things to qualify for government-provided health insurance.

The ruling was welcomed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whose administration had sought a quick decision after pushing to delay the rules that were enacted by her Republican predecessor and the GOP-controlled Legislature. Before the ruling, the state had been preparing to notify more than 80,000 of roughly 675,000 enrollees in Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program that they did not comply with reporting requirements for January and would lose their coverage on May 31 if they did not report for February and March.

Four Michigan residents sued the federal government in November, with assistance from advocacy groups, contending that President Donald Trump’s administration lacked the authority to approve the requirements that undermine the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Starting Jan. 1, able-bodied adults ages 19 through 61 who wanted to maintain their benefits had to show workforce engagement averaging 80 hours a month — through work, school, job training or vocational training, an internship, substance-abuse treatment or community service.

While many participants in the state’s Medicaid expansion program were exempt from the rules, the state had said that more than 100,000 were likely to lose coverage.