California seeks to ban Medicaid work requirements

California wants to be the first state to prohibit its health department from ever seeking a waiver that imposes work requirements on Medicaid enrollees.

The California state Senate passed SB 1108 on a 29-10 vote last week; the bill has already passed the State Assembly. Now, it will go to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature.

The bill specifically restricts the health department from seeking a waiver that could reduce access to Medicaid coverage. The bill’s language would not only ban work requirements, but also waivers that impose waiting periods, time limits and coverage lockouts if beneficiaries don’t pay their premiums, according to an analysis by California’s Department of Health Care Services, which opposed the legislation. “SB 1108 will inappropriately restrict the ability and flexibility of DHCS to negotiate future waivers with the federal government,” the agency said in a notice. “We believe this proposed prohibition in statute is both overly restrictive and unnecessary.”

GOP governor candidate John Cox in May told the San Diego UnionTribune he was concerned about the number of people in the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. “We have one-third of our people on Medi-Cal which is supposed to be just for the low-income, the povertystricken,” Cox said. “I think I do make a good case for the mismanagement of the state.”

Medicaid spending in California has jumped from $66 billion in both state and federal expenditures in fiscal 2013 to $88 billion in 2017, according to federal data. Enrollment rose from 9 million to 12 million.