A new report says Michigan Medicaid work requirements could hit recipients - even working people - harder than previously thought.
The report, from the Washington D.C. based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, looked at how work requirements have impacted Arkansas - the first and only state to implement work requirements so far.
Emily Schwarzkopf is with the Michigan League for Public Policy. She said more than 17-thousand residents lost health care coverage.
“I think that this new report is a warning sign to Michigan of what could happen and how we made need to look more closely at doing the program a little bit better.”
In Michigan, the nonpartisan House Fiscal agency projected as many as 54 thousand Michiganders could lose coverage under the work requirements.
Schwarzkopf said that number could be even higher.
The report also found that working through the red tape around work requirements meant even working people stopped getting access to Medicaid.
“I think that’s really the biggest thing. Informing people that these work requirements are coming and hopefully really minimizing the harm,” Schwarzkopf said.
Schwarzkopf added she has little hope of the requirements being repealed by the current legislature.
Michigan’s Medicaid work requirements are set to take effect January 1st of 2020.
You can find the full report here: https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/1-10-19health.pdf