Arkansas Asks Federal Government to Allow Revamp of its Medicaid Program – By Chelsea Cirruzzo (US News) / July 23 2021
The new plan strikes the state’s controversial work requirements program.
Arkansas has asked the federal government to allow it to revamp its Medicaid program, proposing an alternative to its controversial work requirements program that was struck down in courts. The new plan would instead incentivize enrollees to work in exchange for staying on a private insurance plan paid through Medicaid funds.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday that his office has met with the Department of Health and Human Services on the new plan and says this plan meets the objectives of Medicaid.
“It’s obvious to me that they’re going to look to make sure that we don’t have something like we had before, that the Biden administration was pretty opposed to, which was a strict work requirement,” Hutchinson said at an American Enterprise Institute event. This plan, however, doesn’t have a strict work requirement, he added, and would not result in the loss of coverage for beneficiaries, which is the Biden administration’s concern.
