Ohio released the language of its proposal that would ask the federal government to approve a new work requirement for residents on Medicaid who gained coverage under the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act. Those over 55, in school, training for a job, in drug or alcohol treatment, dealing with serious mental illness or severe healthcare needs would be exempt. It will also request a waiver of the Obamacare requirement that everyone have healthcare.
Indiana and Kentucky have already received approval for similar restrictions; other states, largely those with GOP-controlled legislatures and governors, are expected to follow suit.
Ohio expanded Medicaid under the ACA in 2014, a move championed by Governor Kasich.
709,923 Ohioans enrolled under the expansion. As Loren Anthes, a fellow with the Center for Medicaid Policy at the Center for Community Solutions, points out, Ohio, by its own estimates, says 95% of enrollees are already meeting the proposed requirements (working 20 hours a week) or would be exempt. Only about 36,000 individuals would currently be affected and the state would expect one half, or about 18,000, to lose coverage over five years.
Worth noting: A state report, billed as the most comprehensive study of the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, found that the majority of respondents said “enrollment in Medicaid made it easier to work, or to seek work if they were unemployed.”
“Work requirements are redundant and unnecessary because most people are working. The problem is there aren’t enough well-paying jobs,” Wendy Patton, senior project director with Policy Matters Ohio, told the Columbus Dispatch.
Patton said that in Ohio, 61 percent of working-age Medicaid enrollees are working: 40 percent full time and 21 percent part time. Most of the rest, she said, are ill or disabled, in school, caring for someone or looking for work.Work requirements can trip up low-wage workers because their hours often fluctuate. Those in jobs such as fast-food, retail and landscaping might have changing or seasonal hours, and under the proposed employment policy, workers who don’t get enough hours lose Medicaid coverage, making it harder to stay healthy and employed.
“This policy will end up kicking people out of medical care and making it harder for them to work, not easier,” Patton said.
The proposal would include provisions for limited enforcement in counties with an unemployment rate of more than 10% or limited jobs.
More than 1 in 5 Ohioans are enrolled in Medicaid.
Ohio’s target date for the work requirement is July 1, 2018.
This article appears in Feb 14-20, 2018.
If you can work, you better F**KING work. It’s about time we actually make it difficult to mooch off the system. Don’t blame elected officials, blame the scumbags that ruined it for everyone by taking more than they deserve. I feel for those who truly need this assistance, it’s not fair to them!
Here in NE Ohio… Nothing is given, everything is earned…
Just remember, everyone deserves healthcare. It’s a right not a privilege.
The man who posted above me is a moron and a troll.
Your fellow man deserves all the basic needs in life, that is both the Christian and American way.
‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Matthew 25:35-39
CLEstormtrooper, considering the fact one of your very own prior comments was an open admission that you goof off at work and don’t want to get caught, your cerebral comment above is unintentionally hilarious.
Cosbain, I don’t disagree with your underlying point, but I’m not sure what the “Christian and American way” have to do with anything. Look up the words “empathy” and “compassion” in any credible atheist dictionary on the planet, and I guarantee you won’t find a photograph of Jesus wearing stars and stripes.
Unlike what Stormtrooper up there thinks, there’s far less systemic abuse than everyone presumes. The abuse comes from the top with laws like this. Those are the people responsible for harming the people he considers deserving of assistance. The gross exaggeration, distrust, and vilification is perpetually used in this country to attack the poor and needy – and look, this bill actually makes it harder for people to find work, something which is already a challenge for many. There’s no excuse for it in 2018 America, the richest and supposedly greatest country ever. And yet this is the reality tens of millions of people face daily here. Since this bill so obviously disregards reality and works to harm people, it’s obviously not motivated by “reforming the system” or anything these pretentious Congressional twats lie about. It’s pure greed, like everything the government has done in the last year.
Sadly, all par for the course. Indeed, Jesus would weep at the sight of this country. The actions of the biggest so-called Christians in this country are the exact opposite of the verses they recite.