Arkansas Delays Evaluation of its Medicaid Work Requirements

ANCOR is sharing this article by Politico Pulse because of our concerns that Medicaid work requirements could inadvertently harm people with disabilities, and affect the Direct Support Professional (DSP) workforce which supports people with disabilities. Many DSPs rely on public assistance even when working full-time in order to earn enough to support their families. Challenges complying with requirements to document their work could affect DSPs ability to receive benefits even if they are working. Public health benefits such as Medicaid expansion allow recipients to spend on other priority items such as housing, as seen with a California study that finds that expansion reduces evictions.

As written by Politico Pulse:

“Arkansas: Evaluation of Medicaid work requirements is on hold. An independent evaluation of the initiative, which led to 18,000 people losing their health coverage last year, is paused because of ongoing litigation that halted the program, POLITICO’s Rachana Pradhan reports.

— What the pause means: Less visibility into what happened to the low-income adults kicked off Medicaid and whether the project is meeting its stated goals of increasing employment and improving beneficiaries’ health.

The Justice Department has appealed a federal judge’s March decision striking down the Arkansas work requirement.”