Medicaid Work Requirements Rejected by Court in Three States; SD Waiver App Languishes

Forcing Medicaid recipients to submit to cumbersome and confusing work requirements is going over well in court. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg has overturned Medicaid work requirements in three states, Arkansas, Kentucky, and now, New Hampshire:

Boasberg ruled that the federal government failed to adequately consider the potential for the work requirement to kick significant numbers of people off of Medicaid. He points out that neither the Trump administration nor the state of New Hampshire offered an estimate of the number of people who would lose their health insurance under the program.

“That omission is particularly startling in light of information before the Secretary about the initial effects of Arkansas’s markedly similar project — namely, that more than 80% of persons subject to the requirements had reported no compliance information for the initial months, and nearly 16,900 people had lost coverage,” wrote Boasberg.

Dawn McKinney with New Hampshire Legal Assistance, which served as co-counsel to plaintiffs in the case, reacted to the ruling on Monday afternoon.

“This is huge. It’s going to give our clients and thousands of Granite Staters peace of mind,” said McKinney. “I think a lot of people will sleep better tonight knowing that their health insurance isn’t at risk” [Jason Moon, “Federal Judge Blocks N.H.’s Medicaid Work Requirement,” New Hampshire Public Radio, 2019.07.29].

South Dakota applied to pilot a Medicaid work requirement in Minnehaha and Pennington counties last year. The Trump Administration still hasn’t taken action on that application, perhaps because the boss is too busy tweeting to take care of actual business. You’d think South Dakota’s avid Trump support would win us some swifter attentionBut hey, in this case, the Trump Administration’s inherent failings work in favor of people in need. Take your time, Trump—there’s no rush to pass another bad plan to hurt the poor that will likely only be overturned in court anyway.