WHY BE AFRAID OF WORK?

What have Democrats got against work? Legislation was approved in a Tennessee House subcommittee Wednesday that would direct the state Department of Finance and Administration to seek a federal waiver in order to impose work requirements on able-bodied, working-age adults without dependent children under 6 who are TennCare beneficiaries.

But Democrats squawked as if the measure were asking folks to walk into a burning building.

They’re trying “to kick people off” TennCare (the state’s Medicaid program), state Rep. John Ray Clemons, D-Nashville, said.

“Part of the problem” is moving “so quickly to get rid of people” on TennCare, state Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, said.

In truth, there’s nothing “quickly” about it. The legislation is only seeking the federal waiver under a new policy issued in January by the Trump administration.

Should the waiver be granted, a new measure would be needed to determine who would qualify (some 58,000-87,000 people out of some 1.3 million on TennCare) and whether work, volunteer work and/or school would satisfy the weekly 20-hour requirements.

We don’t believe Republicans are trying to kick people off TennCare, but healthy, working-age beneficiaries should only be looking at the program as a stopgap between jobs in the first place and not as a health care hammock.

Similar requirements were reinstituted this month in most of the state’s counties by Gov. Haslam for able-bodied adults without dependents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) benefits. The work had been previously required but was discontinued during the Great Recession.

House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, who sponsored the TennCare legislation, said it is an effort to lift people out of poverty.

We think if it serves as a prod to get people in school, to help their community by volunteering, or to go to work (or back to work), so be it. During the recovery from the recession, many able-bodied people left the job force because they couldn’t get the full-time work they were trained for and didn’t want to take just any part-time work. With the economy in a much better position today, their job prospects should be considerably brighter.

Legislators are rightly concerned about the cost of such legislation if a waiver is granted but differ as to how much that cost would be or should be, based on a similar federal waiver approval for Kentucky.

One thing at a time, though, Democrats. Until the waiver is granted, the minimal work requirements need not be feared.