182,000 people are about to get health insurance now that Virginia is finally expanding Medicaid. And, they will not have to meet the work requirement to get those benefits. At least not yet.
Should low-income people who get health insurance through Medicaid have to have a job? That’s a question that was at the heart of a compromise struck earlier this year in Richmond. Democrats got Medicaid expansion and Republicans got a work requirement. But Virginia is still waiting for a waiver to make that happen.
And Michael Cassidy at the Commonwealth Institute says legal challenges to the work requirements show they are designed to take coverage away from people.
“And so court rulings to date have pointed that out; that you cannot be handing out waivers that are supposed to advance the purpose of Medicaid when what they’re asking to do would actually throw people off the rolls.”
Legal challenges to work requirements are still moving forward in Arkansas and Kentucky, and more could be on the way if Virginia’s waiver is eventually approved by the Trump administration.
But, as legal expert Rich Kelsey points out, that may never end up happening.
“I don’t think these work requirements will ever see the light of day because I think this administration will likely be gone before all the legal challenges are through and the work requirements can be made law.”
So, for now, 182,000 people are about to get health insurance without meeting that work requirement. And it’ll likely be years before the work requirement could be implemented, even if the idea survives legal challenges.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
