Link.
Kentucky on Friday became the first U.S. state to require that Medicaid recipients work or get jobs training, after gaining federal approval for the fundamental change to the 50-year-old health insurance program for the poor.
Kentucky's waiver, submitted for federal approval in 2016, requires able-bodied adult recipients to participate in at least 80 hours per month of "employment activities," including jobs training, education and community service.
Most recipients must pay a premium based on income. Some who miss a payment or fail to re-enroll will be locked out for six months. The new rules will go into effect in July, Kentucky state officials said.
"Kentucky will now lead on this issue," Governor Matt Bevin said at a news conference on Friday. "They want the dignity associated with being able to earn and have engagement in the very things they're receiving," he said of Medicaid recipients.
Certain groups are exempt, including former foster care youth, pregnant women, primary caregivers of a dependent, full-time students and the medically frail. The Trump administration also said states would have to make "reasonable modifications" for those battling opioid addiction and other substance-use disorders.
Kentucky, along with 30 other states, expanded Medicaid to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level under the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement commonly called Obamacare.
More than 400,000 Kentucky residents gained health insurance through the program, the highest growth rate of Medicaid coverage of any state.
Among adult Medicaid recipients aged 18 to 64, 60 percent already have jobs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation health policy research group. Most adult Medicaid recipients who do not work reported major impediments as the reason, according to Kaiser.
