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Thread: we're seeing further confirmation of significant momentum against Medicaid work requirements/lockouts waivers. Summary is that the combination of successful litigation and terrible outcomes in Arkansas has stopped new adoptions and started to reverse existing ones.
2. You could see this developing over the last few months--I wrote about it here: familiesusa.org/blog/2018/11/t… and here: healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hbl…. Now it is playing out on the ground in the states.
3. In West Virginia and Wyoming, Republican legislatures explicitly cited litigation and implementation risk--as well as cruelty--in rejecting work requirements legislation. West Virginia story here: wvpublic.org/post/medicaid-… and Wyoming story here: trib.com/news/state-and…
4. The Democratic gains in 2018 are also having an impact. The new Dem governors of Michigan and Wisconsin have cited Arkansas's experience with paperwork barriers driving disenrollments in trying to dial back waivers that lame duck govs and CMS hastily approved late last year.
5. The new Dem majority in New Hampshire's legislature is also pushing back on the looming implementation of their particularly ill conceived work requirement--summarized here by @JessicaSchubel:
6. Recall that last summer, a federal judge vacated federal approval of Kentucky's waiver. CMS re-approved the waiver with non-substantive changes and a legal rationale that flies in the face of the language of the Medicaid statute (more here: healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hbl…)
7. On March 14th the same judge will hear oral arguments on the Kentucky re-approval as well Arkansas's waiver, the first one of these to be implemented. insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/arg…. There is a good chance that no state will be implementing for at least the next several months.
8. This could all still go badly--The Trump administration still strongly supports these, notably. But there is a discernible shift in political momentum. /End
