eAlert Mon, 10/22/2018 - 12:00

Imposing work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries will likely disrupt health care for hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans, leaving them exposed to potentially catastrophic medical costs, a Commonwealth Fund study finds.

The authors of the new report, which focuses on Kentucky — whose waiver application to implement work requirements for nondisabled adults has been challenged in federal court — determined that as many as 118,000 of the state’s Medicaid enrollees would either become uninsured for an extended period or experience a gap in their coverage. That projection is double the number who would normally be expected to disenroll from Medicaid over a two-year period because of fluctuations in income, administrative barriers, or life changes.

Researchers Sara Collins, Sherry Glied, and Adlan Jackson note that previous studies have found that people experiencing coverage gaps have similar problems getting health care or paying medical bills as people who are uninsured continuously.

With encouragement from the Trump administration, 14 states have received approval for or are pursuing work requirements for nondisabled Medicaid beneficiaries.

collins_work_reqs_medicaid_ky_1x1 Read the report Work Requirements Would Disrupt Health Care for Many in Kentucky: New Study