Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday called for the state legislature to suspend new work requirements for people on Medicaid. Michigan is just two weeks away from sending letters to some 80-thousand people telling them they are at risk of losing their health care coverage.
In order to keep coverage under the Healthy Michigan plan, recipients must document that they are working, looking for work or volunteering 80 hours a month. That requirement has been challenged in the courts and has been shot down in other states.
Alex Rossman with the Michigan League for Public Policy said he agrees with the governor’s request, saying Michigan should “pump the brakes” on new requirements until the court case is decided.
"The Department of Health and Human Services and the state as a whole are incurring costs with notifying individuals and could, weeks or months from now, have all that work struck down."
In a joint statement, Republican leaders in the state house and senate said pausing the work requirements would push people - quote - “deeper into dependency, unhealthy behaviors, and long-term poverty”
