Judge Strikes Kentucky Medicaid Labor Rules

More than 400,000 Kentuckians have joined Medicaid since 2014 as a result of the expansion, and the state estimated that 350,000 of them – about a quarter of the total Medicaid population – would be subject to the new working rule. But many recipients already have jobs or otherwise would meet the requirement. The state had planned to grant exemptions to people whom it found medically fragile or who were pregnant, to the school or to the principal caregiver of a dependent child or of a disabled family member.

Advocates of the poor claim that coverage loss due to new documentation requirements. Kentucky itself estimated that 95,000 fewer residents would have been enrolled in Medicaid within five years, although its lawyers said many of these people would have found jobs that offer insurance. Whatever the case may be, the plaintiffs used Kentucky's estimate to claim that the demands of the job would have thwarted Medicaid's goal.

The Trump administration approved Kentucky's plan in January shortly after Ms. Verma announced a major policy change. participate in other "community engagement activities" as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid.

A few weeks later, the National Health Law Program, the Kentucky Equal Justice Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center file the lawsuit on behalf of 16 Medicaid beneficiaries in the

work requirement attracted the more interest. Arkansas, Indiana and New Hampshire have obtained permission to follow in Kentucky's footsteps, and seven other states are waiting for the Trump administration to decide where they can. These states are Arizona and Ohio, which expanded Medicaid, and Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin, which did not not and would not direct their work to a small number of non – disabled adults.

Michigan, Virginia, and several other states also planned to continue their work, but had not yet applied.

"The Trump administration's attempt to turn the Medicaid program into executive action has been restricted," the legal director of the National Health Law Program, which provides legal services to the poor. "The purpose of the Medicaid law is to provide medical assistance, and this approval could not be maintained because it was doing exactly the opposite – restricting coverage."