Work requirement approved for Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Trump administration on Monday approved Arkansas’ plan to require thousands of people on its Medicaid expansion program to work or volunteer, making Arkansas the third state allowed to impose such restrictions on health care coverage for the poor.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that the requirement for Arkansas’ program, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents, had been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. More than 285,000 people are on the Arkansas program, which was created as an alternative to expanding traditional Medicaid under the federal health law.
“This is not about punishing anyone,” the Republican governor said at a news conference with Seema Verma, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “It’s about giving people an opportunity to work. It’s to give them the training that they need. It’s to help them to move out of poverty and up the economic ladder.”
The Trump administration in January said it would allow states to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. It has already approved proposals from Kentucky and Indiana.