Category: Nicolas Terry

By Nicolas Terry

There’s an old saying, credited to Will Rogers, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging!” When it comes to Medicaid work requirements there has been mounting evidence that excavation cessation would be good advice for states considering this misguided attempt at social engineering. After all, work requirement waivers face unrelenting legal challenges, an obdurate CMS apparently unable to fashion a lawful waiver, mountains of bad data, and increasingly poor optics. Two weeks ago Arizona, which had yet to implement its program, jumped ship notifying CMS that it was postponing implementation. This week Indiana, which began implementation at the beginning of the year, announced a similar postponement.

According to the KFF Medicaid Waiver Tracker, CMS has approved applications from nine states for Section 1115 work requirement (or “community engagement”) waivers. Nine more are pending. Of the nine states with approvals, three (Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Hampshire) have had them overturned by D.C. Circuit Judge Boasberg. Work requirement poster state Kentucky even had a second, revised waiver overturned. Of the six other approved states, five (Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin) have yet to implement their work requirements. Until this week, the sixth, Indiana, had been performing a slow and litigation-free roll out. However, with its work requirement sanctions about to get serious, a few weeks ago Indiana also found itself on Judge Boasberg’s docket.

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