Work requirement should be mandatory for
healthy Medicaid recipients
Jul 18, 2018
Shutterstock photo
Requiring
healthy, childless welfare recipients to work – or undergo job training – to
continue receiving taxpayer-funded benefits is practical.
It's in
the best interests of the taxpayers who fund the programs – whether that be
Medicaid, food stamps or the like – and it's in the best interests of the
individuals receiving the benefits, who by working or receiving job training
have more and better opportunities to improve their own situations.
Medicaid
is a government-run health insurance program initially intended for the
disabled, the elderly and the poorest of the poor. Under Obamacare in 2012,
states were allowed to voluntarily expand their Medicaid rolls to include many
previously ineligible residents, including healthy, working-age adults with no
minor children. Illinois was one of 31 states to jump on board.
Unfortunately,
Medicaid expansion came with no work requirement.
A new
study on the expansion, released last week, reveals the overall impact. The
results are predictable, but still alarming.
Nationwide,
55 percent of the more than 12 million able-bodied people who joined Medicaid
under the Obamacare expansion reported no income, meaning they're not working.
In
Illinois, where about one of every four residents is on Medicaid, more than
400,000 out of the 580,00 Medicaid expansion enrollees reported no earned
income, or 70 percent overall.
What's
worse, the taxpayer funds that go to support Medicaid for nonworking, healthy
adults are not going to those individuals who need it most.
“Based
on this data, an estimated 6.8 million of the 12.4 million expansion enrollees
nationwide are not working at all,” the report, from the Foundation for
Government Accountability, states. “While these able-bodied adults remain on
the rolls – refusing to work and consuming resources – nearly 650,000
individuals with developmental disabilities, spinal cord injuries, and other
conditions remain trapped on Medicaid waiting lists for needed home-based
services. Since expansion began, at least 21,904 individuals languishing on
Medicaid waiting lists in ObamaCare expansion states have died.”
The
FGA, a Florida-based public policy think tank, supports reasonable work
requirements for healthy welfare beneficiaries. It cites research that shows
that "the longer able-bodied adults spend on welfare, the more difficult
it is for them to re-enter the workforce."
"Research
has further shown that, after work requirements were implemented in other
welfare programs, able-bodied adults went back to work in more than 600
different industries and their incomes more than doubled, on average,"
FGA's report says. "Higher wages more than offset lost welfare benefits,
leaving individuals financially better off and spurring greater economic
growth."
Critics
say work requirements prevent those in need of health care from receiving it,
particularly in rural areas. That's only the case if those seeking Medicaid
benefits who are able to work aren't interested in trying to find it.
Earlier
this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued new rules that
allow states to apply for waivers to implement work requirements into their
Medicaid programs. Since then, four states – Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky and
New Hampshire – have been granted permission to implement the work
requirements. Twelve other state have are either submitted or are preparing
waiver applications.
Illinois
isn't one of them, but it should be.
Even
better, Congress should make Medicaid work requirements the law.
Taxpayer-funded
welfare programs such as Medicaid are needed, make no mistake. They're needed
to help those who can't help themselves.
It's
reasonable to expect those who are able to help themselves do so if they want a
taxpayer-funded benefit.
That's
common sense.
Dan McCaleb is news director of Illinois News Network and
the digital hub ILNews.org. He welcomes
your comments. Contact Dan at dmccaleb@ilnews.org.
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