The U.S. Justice Department filed notice today that it would appeal the decision preventing Arkansas (and potentially many other states) from imposing a work rule to qualify for expanded Medicaid coverage.
"Arkansas might use the time while the program is paused to consider whether and how to better educate persons about the requirements and how to satisfy them," Boasberg wrote
The Arkansas Medicaid work rule — an unvarnished success in pushing thousands off Medicaid coverage — will be the subject of a court hearing Thursday in Washington, but the Trump administration got roughed up on its plans to expand the experiment in a congressional hearing today.
On Friday, the Trump administration filed a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit attempting to stop Arkansas's first-of-its-kind Medicaid work requirement. But comments made earlier this week by the top federal Medicaid official may indicate coming
Among those beneficiaries who are required to report, "91.6 percent ... failed to do so in September 2018," the letter said. That sends "a strong warning signal that the current process may not be structured in a way that provides individuals an opportunity to succeed, with high stakes for beneficiaries who fail."
The complaint says one plaintiff lost his job last month due to increased illness as a result of losing his insurance. He lost his insurance because he didn't report his work hours under the state's new rule.
Ernest Dumas provides some useful background this week on Donald Trump's appointment of a major drug lobbyist as secretary of Health and Human Services. Dumas does not expect, given the record, better deals out of drug companies for Medicare and Medicaid.