Proposed work requirements for Medicaid mean more than 61,000 Ohioans could potentially lose their health insurance if the modern Trump administration allows Ohio Republican leaders to move forward with the plan.
Although the Biden administration has stood in the way, Ohio’s 2023 budget signed by Gov. Mike DeWine requires the state Department of Medicaid to once again ask the federal government under the modern presidential administration for permission to mandate work, drug testing and/or education requirements for adult Medicaid health insurance recipients.
According to the Ohio Department of Medicaid, the purpose of this requirement is to “promote economic stability and financial independence.”
Work requirements under Medicaid would have the opposite effect, Will said Petrik, director of policy and advocacy at the Rise Together Innovation Institute.
“This proposal will take away health care from thousands of people who are struggling to make ends meet,” he said. “This proposal will restrict access to Medicaid, making residents sicker and more vulnerable.”
The state is currently going through a comment period on the modern requirements before submitting them to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Anyone wishing to comment on the modern proposed requirements can email the Ohio Department of Medicaid at [email protected] until January 21 at 5:00 p.m
“It kind of leads to this mentality that this will help people get back on their feet,” he said Catherine Poe, health and budget researcher in Politics matters, Ohio. “When what’s really pulling people’s strings is health insurance and housing, and all other social benefits have to be provided before you can work, not after.”
The Ohio Department of Medicaid estimates that if these changes went into effect, 61,826 people would lose health insurance, a number Poe and Petrick say is low.
“I think they will encounter more administrative problems than they can estimate,” Poe said.
Petrick said it can be challenging to show proof of work if people don’t have reliable internet access.
Poe worries that it will be challenging for infirmed or disabled people who cannot work to prove to the state that they are unable to work.
“People often need health insurance to get a diagnosis that confirms a disability,” Poe said. “It’s just very dirty. … We are creating this system where Ohioans are very uncertain about the future of their health insurance if they rely on state benefits. The ability to have health insurance is one of the main cornerstones of economic stability.”
Many people who are kicked off Medicaid don’t reapply, Poe said.
“Oftentimes you have to fight your way back into the system, and not everyone has the time, money or, frankly, just the emotional energy to try to fight their way back into the system,” Poe said.
People usually start accumulating medical debt when they lose their health insurance.
“If you have someone who has been kicked off Medicaid and has type 1 diabetes, that person still has to come in and take insulin every month. “She will just keep inflating that number until she can get health insurance again,” he added. Poe said.
Georgia and Arkansas have attempted to implement Medicaid work requirements but have faced various challenges.
“It doesn’t work because it takes a lot of administration for the state to actually come in and see if someone is working,” Poe said.
A federal judge suspended the program in Arkansas in 2019, but not before 18,000 adults lost their health insurance.
In July 2023, Georgia launched the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program, which offers Medicaid coverage to low-income working adults, but enrollment has fallen well brief of expectations. More than 40% of Georgia counties had fewer than 10 people registeredeven though the state’s uninsured population rate is among the highest in the country, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Senate members asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program.
Follow the OCJ reporter Megan Henry in Bluesky.
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