Medicaid work rules revive fears of coverage losses in Arkansas
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Andrew Hicks lost his health insurance once over a work requirement and worries he'll lose it again under the new federal law.
Why it matters: Arkansas tried work requirements a few years ago, and the main result was that people lost health coverage — and Hicks, a 37-year-old from Little Rock, worries that's about to happen again.
- Hicks now works for a small business that doesn't offer health insurance and says losing access to his antidepressant medication could be life-threatening.
- When he lost Medicaid under the Arkansas work requirements, he was a graduate student working for Uber and didn't meet the reporting requirements. Without medication, he didn't finish his master's program and was suicidal.
- Hicks sees no benefits to the new work requirement. "What is the real point of this," he says. "Are we trying to make the public healthy or not?"
Flashback: In summer 2018, Arkansas implemented Arkansas Works, requiring some Medicaid recipients to document 80 hours of work or other qualifying activities each month or lose coverage.
- By the time a judge blocked the law the following spring, about 18,000 people had lost health insurance.
- A 2019 study conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that Arkansas' work requirements did not lead to more employment or to more private health insurance coverage, at least not while the program was in effect.
New Medicaid changes require states to verify recipients' eligibility monthly and do redeterminations at least twice a year. The new law provides $200 million to states for implementation.
- The law includes some exceptions, such as for disabilities, pregnancy or caregiving.
What they're saying: Providing health insurance helps people be healthy enough to work and protects them from incurring medical debt or experiencing crises from losing access to their medications, Camille Richoux, health policy director at nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, told Axios.
- "Medicaid is not a reward for having a job," she added.
Reality check: It's unclear exactly what documentation current Medicaid recipients will be required to submit, how often, and what methods they'll be allowed to use.
As for Hicks, he says he's stockpiling medication.