WASHINGTON (May 4, 2023)--The new debt relief bill passed by the House compels states to link Medicaid to work requirements, a move that threatens state finances and Medicaid coverage, according to a blog published in Health Affairs by a team of health policy analysts at the George Washington University. In addition, the House measure upends the foundation on which Medicaid rests–the guarantee that states will get federal funding needed to furnish medical assistance to program beneficiaries.
“The bill amounts to a massive federal power play aimed at forcing states either to eliminate affected, eligible working-age adults from Medicaid or face enormous financial consequences,” according to Sara Rosenbaum, the Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, and her colleagues. “States that choose to preserve coverage would face massive, after the fact federal funding disallowances if their proof of compliance falls short.”
The blog goes on to note that state losses have “been estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $65 billion over 10 years.”
The authors go on to say the bill would have an enormous “destructive impact on the health of poor working age adults.”
The blog, Forcing States to Tie Medicaid to Work is an Unconstitutional ‘Gun to the Head’ was published May 3 in the journal Health Affairs by Sara Rosenbaum, MaryBeth Musumeci, Alexander Somodevilla and Maria Casoni, all at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health.
To interview Professor Rosenbaum or one of the other authors please contact Kathy Fackelmann, kfackelmann
gwu [dot] edu (kfackelmann[at]gwu[dot]edu)