Whether the program was intended to kick people off AR Medicaid, it was well worth it to those who cannot live in poverty and have their personal finances being destroyed by the government. Just forget it liberals. Medicaid should never been an entitlement program. Work requirements on all public assistance programs including Medicaid is the future regarding social welfare reform measures. Finding a job shouldn't be seen as a disease by the left.
3
Astonishingly enough, the Affordable Care Act website, which most like was designed by "people who actually WANTED it to work, suffered from the following problems:
An absurdly complicated web-site :
1) For most people it would take more than an hour to get through it.
2) Many questions were "ill-defined". Such as "Did you RECENTLY move or lose a job or change income. "Recently" can mean anything from "last week to in the last two years", in my book. Questions to clarify remained unanswered.
3) It was impossible to simply zero in to the ONE item ONE NEEDED TO CHANGE. No, you had to go through the whole slog of questions once more, which pushed people away from ever changing anything. Just dumb.
4) Unreasonable questions galore: Such as if you already had stated your name, SSN, address, and the names and SSN of wife and children, they would ask something like: "You stated that so-and-so is your daughter, and so-and-so is your son, so please answer "Are you the father of your daughter, or your son, or the parent of your chlidren". There was no option to say a) of course, or b) one can only hope, or c) why do you even need to know that? Really? Yes, really!
5) Could one get answers by phone in or in writing? No, not really! Tried it, people did not know answers, and written inquiries remained unanswered. It felt as they want it to fail.
2
I got here by searching for Medicaid on the Arkansas.gov site.
I am underwhelmed.
https://portal.arkansas.gov/agency/department-of-human-services/service/...
1
What a joke, though I ain’t laughing.
The screen grab of the Arkansas website is this UI/graphic designer's worst nightmare. Garish mismatched colors ala Geocities circa 1999? Check. Confusing, unnecessarily duplicative links? Check. More than 3 fonts on a single page? Check. Comic Sans font used (period)? Check check and check. My eyes are on fire here.
8
If they were handing out free stuff (food, cash, phones), you can bet the 'awareness level' would skyrocket.
Reintroducing involuntary servitude should apply to all. It would be great to see ‘trust babies’ required to work a thousand hours a year like the poor. Think about Don Jr. or Ivanka going down into a coal mine for a full shift every other day. What’s good for the poor should be just great for the idle rich.
5
@Thomas R. Wilson
Yes, forcing government people, the ultra-rich and bureaucrats to eat their own cooking, i.e. to have their laws apply to them, with no exception possible, has long been one of my dreams. Not happening because the poor are too sick, the sick are too poor, the working poor can barely make it, and everyone else keeps their mouth shut, because they are afraid to lose the little or the lot that they do have. The nice people are too afraid, and the mean people don't care. God does not enforce justice, Jesus ain't coming back, and corruption reigns supreme.
Happy now?
1
Given that many people on Medicaid may be elderly or disabled with limited mobility and/or living on limited income, is it really that surprising that they would not pick up the phone, have Internet access/email or check their mail every day (especially in a rural state where the mailbox may be a long walk from the front door)?
4
@Larry L
Disabled and elderly are exempt from the requirements.
I ride public transit daily, though obviously not in AK. It's difficult to understand the range of difficulty in our population in meeting basic online requirements or even read them accurately if you drive everywhere. If clients don't have ready access to counseling or outreach services many will not comply.
2
@Geraldine Conrad
I clicked on the site link embedded in the report... it first requires that you answer a question about your voter registration status before it would let you navigate to anything else... I would conclude that the the intention is to de-incentivise public benefit participation...
6
Guess this was not covered on Fox news.
4
@E Holland If it was it was heralded as a success.
1
First, if you are enrolled in a government benefit program it is incumbent on you to keep the government informed about your current address and to open, read, and act upon any communications from that agency. That is just common sense.
Second, I did try the site listed and found myself ready to log on and report work hours in about 90 seconds. Short of assigning an individual worker to each applicant, I do not see how the process could be any easier.
3
@mikecody One has to have access to the internet and know how to use it. Neither is universally true among the less fortunate.
10
@Carolyn mahoney Libraries offer free Internet access as well as training on how to use it. I realize that not all libraries do, but it is one more option in addition to the myriad already mentioned in the article. I’m with mikecody: if phone calls, help centers, e-mail, and snail mail don’t work, what will? Text messages that people will blow off because they think they’re a scam? If the recipients respond to any other information that arrives in these ways, it’s up to them to respond to this too. If they can’t handle that, they need more intensive help.
@Carolyn mahoney True, but as the article states, they have put terminals in county offices so there is no real difference between this and reporting in person.
1
Barriers to reporting, fine print, unnavigable site...are all features designed to throw people off of the program. These are not "bugs" in the system. They are features of the system.
10
@Moderate
Exactly. Im sure this system is working exactly as the designers intended.
6
@Moderate
All that information is right there next to the bypass announcement for Arthur Dent's property. How could they miss it?
1
I live in Arkansas.
This program is terrible for many reasons. What kind of public good is it to discourage people from seeking medical care?
OUR COMMUNITY IS AT RISK if we have people with Hepatitis , HIV, STDs ( soon will be Flu Season too ) , living among us without medical care. They will not seek medical care if they do not have insurance . We should be ENCOURAGING Arkansans to maintain good health , go to the Doctor , get immunizations as needed. Instead we have ( backward looking ) leaders dropping people from having health care!. Also who pays when these " dropped " people show up in ER ? ( hospitals would like to know )
14
@L. Finn-Smith
Speaking of systems. There is a universal system of healthcare in the United States. Only the rich can afford it, and the elected representatives are covered of course. There is another Healthcare system in the USA that could almost be called "socialized", but one has to promise to die for the country to be covered by it. Yes, it's the US military, which provides healthcare to soldiers. Only if you are strong and fast and brave, courageous and willing to fight when called, then you get to be covered with the US Military Health Care complex, with extra goodies like free education, subsidized housing, and life insurance thrown into the bag. But you can't reason why, you only are allowed to do and die, as needed. Am I from another planet to point this out, in this manner? YES.
Is the VA system without problems? No, but it's better than nothing.
Sometimes I wonder whether it would be easier to expand the VA system to provide "paid for via payroll tax" coverage for all, because the US military is so loved, adored and considered special by so many. This is just because Republicans seem to dislike the idea of helping anyone in need. Don't tell me about your giving to church and charities, because, hey name one charity that actually provides help to the poor. They seem to be there, but if you are poor and ask for help, they show you the door.
If there had been a new cash incentive that had just rolled out, somehow everyone would know about.
2
@Loco
Not if it was only advertised by emails and flyers to people's former addresses.
4
So much winning for the citizens of Arkansas, I'm sure they are very eager to comply with the new requirements. I hope that they show how much they appreciate the GOP for looking out for their well being, at the voting booth this November.
7
If the state relies on Internet access for compliance, it is set up to fail.
Why don't they have public service announcements on TV and radio? The people most likely to use Medicaid would be reached.
12
It is called personal responsibility. I think the work requirement is a dumb idea (I was a vocational counselor on Welfare to Work for a number of years) but if one is getting government benefits they need to stay on top of the correspondence. Often they don’t. So none of this surprises me. Personal responsibility.
8
@nanhum Sure, but one can only be responsible for responsibilities one is aware of. With respect to new reporting requirements in AK that appears to be a problem. Kind of like when states institute VoterID but allocate no or little money for public outreach. In our information-blizzard lives, that creates suspicions that the real intent is to prevent something. In one case, disenfranchising beneficiaries (preventing unwanted expenditures), in the other disenfranchising voters (preventing ‘unwanted’ votes). In the end, it’s all ‘penny wise, and pound foolish’).
5
Did anyone else notice the site was developed in 2009? The site first directs people to vote before even getting to this screen. The site is developed in old ASP (not even ASP.NET) and has a Flesch–Kincaid readability of 45 (college level: difficulty to read) with a state whose reading level is that below fifth grade reading level. Also the site is not mobile friendly (where most people have access to the internet these days).
A simple upgrade of the site and a complete redesign of the flow would have likely stopped over 50% from failing to complete the site. The decade old antiquated site, the lack of a simple one to two click structure to get where they need to and even the lack of simple automated help bots or chat support sets up even more failure points. To add insult, at the time, the technology the state used was already 15 years old, now almost 25 years old.
The programs may be great, but the process is broken, the site is confusing, and structured based on bureaucratic silos, rather than services that end users need. People don't think in terms of departments, they think in terms of their needs, the site should be structure by needs. It really is a simple fix.
22
@James Wallis Martin
Thanks for explaining real internet life. So much talk is airy, that it's a pleasure to see some thoughtful specifics.
6
@James Wallis Martin Your point about being mobile friendly is key. Many more poor families have internet access via cell phones than via wired service at their home.
11
This is just another Republican attempt to “starve the poor to feed the rich” as they make it more difficult for poor people to access and keep assistance all the while giving the ultra wealthy huge tax cuts. What is even more disturbing is the majority of the poor whom the Republicans target are Trump supporting Republicans themselves. Instead of being educated on work requirements they should be educated about who is trying to take away their benefits: The same Republicans whom they support, solely so they can redistribute the wealth to their rich buddies. If the poor actually knew it was the Republicans making their lives much more difficult maybe they would wise up and vote democrat, although I highly doubt that holds true with Trump supporters given Trump could murder somebody and they would still support him. An enigma for sure!
11
Works as intended with a significant caveat - in rural white states like Maine, this could kill off a large percentage of the sacred "Base".
8
Anyone with a clue can see that the indigent population of Arkansas, with very little internet access, and likely a smaller amount of people who own a computer to login to the state website have been setup to fail.
When just about everyone loses their healthcare coverage, Seema Verna and AR. officials will say "well people didn't comply with the program requirements..." is just another kick in the teeth to the less fortunate who depend on these vital programs.
At least the billionaires and millionaires have been taken care of. The heck with everyone else.
11
Hummmm, now let’s see, is Arkansas a red or blue state...............? Significances, folks, significances.......
4
The state's leadership doesn't care a whit about health, just being able to say they eliminated human deadbeats in support of corporate deadbeats.
13
Now what do they say about using ignorance of the law as an excuse?
2
@Crossing Overhead
Just wait until "ignorance of the law" happens to you. What will you do then?
1
The GOP mission is being accomplished.
7
Here is how it works in Canada: "Are you a Canadian citizen or permanent resident?", "Yes", "You're covered.".
17
So we give the ultra rich big tax cuts and cut the benefits of the little guy! Why does that not surprise me!
12
It costs money to retrieve voicemails on pay as you go phones. When you are behind on everything reading and answering bills or ads to buy things, doesn't make sense. 67%of America has $0 between paychecks. They don't have an extra dollar. On the bright side, its still warm, and there are a couple of stray dogs no one will miss if they go missing...
5
@4Average Joe
It doesn't cost anything to open your mail.
2
@neal
Wrong. If you don't have a computer, it costs you time and effort to find a computer to input your work hours. And for this population of people, that time and effort can be substantial.
@Joseph P
Not only is the time and effort substantial, it is beyond the ability and resources of many poor people.
“I’m excited by the partnerships that Arkansas has fostered to connect Medicaid beneficiaries to work and educational opportunities”
Read: "I'm excited by how much money we are saving so we can cut taxes to the rich".
These people don't understand the difference between situational poverty and permanent poverty, or don't want to understand it. The people who are actually working the kind of jobs poor people can get don't have the time--or sometimes the know-how--to be dealing with more requirements and paperwork. Others cannot work because they suffer from depression, or other mental illness, or a host of other health issues that doctors usually ignore or miss. Denying them coverage will only make things worse.
10
When you subsidize any commodity, be it corn or milk or medicaid or welfare entitlements, you get more of it. History has proven the truth of that fact. There are undoubtedly millions of people on the Gravy Train who are fraudently claiming benefits and who are undoubtedly, in the medicaid requirement under discussion, w capable of work. The only power the government has to enforce work requirement is to withhold their medicaid benefits.
1
@mark The government could make sure there are jobs available for which poor and poorly educated people qualify, something the GOP has been reluctant to do for decades. Since the private sector won't do it, the government could start another WPA program, especially in the states that lost manufacturing jobs. (A little help in the child-care department would help too.) Don't hold your breath: Trump promised to bring back jobs but won't even bring back his own company's jobs from overseas.
6
@mark
Well somehow, Europe manages to spend less on healthcare than we do, and get more of it. Go figure.
11
@mark
Standard conservative assumptions.
1) there’s nothing ‘proven’, just look at any other industrialized country offering healthcare. They’re ALL paying less for more. Because they actually take voters, and the programs, seriously and not just donors looking for politicians to provide them with tax cuts while they sabotage and scam what healthcare access exists.
2) ‘undoubtedly’ is not evidence!!! This is a typical canard, often associated with the word ‘fraud’, whether of the voting variety or the beneficiary variety.
In the end it’s just a crazy minority that imagines they can have a government that costs little and does even less.
3
And what will happen to people when the next recession hits and unemployment rises? What happens to people who need Medicaid to continue treatment and there are no jobs? Most folks don’t realize they are one bout of unemployment away from being poor and in need of the social safety net.
14
Oh come on, we're not going to pretend for one minute that Trump cares about lifting people out of poverty, are we? The only thing Trump and his Republican buddies care about is giving relief to the so called overburdened tax payers by shrinking the "out of control" safety net. The work requirement says loud and clear that having adequate healthcare is a privilege, not a right, and putting the onus on low-income people to demonstrate their worthiness and jump through hoops is a feature, not a bug. Suggesting that letting people fall through the cracks was not part of the design is the equivalent IMO of saying that the civil war was about states rights.
We've been conducting the experiment about how withholding healthcare and keeping it tied to one's work motivates people to work/keep themselves healthy, and it has clearly failed, because we know low income people are the least healthy among us. The idea that depriving people of healthcare, addiction treatment, smoking cessation, diabetes management or any other costly health condition is patently absurd, not to mention birth control, mammograms, treatment for asthma. Europeans, with their generous health benefits and safety nets, are healthier than us by far.
If Arkansan politicians were interested in helping people escape poverty, they would be improving education, expanding preschools, funding addiction treatment, providing affordable childcare. You know, transfer of wealth stuff.
22
We should not make the erroneous assumption that these programs are designed to "lift people out of poverty". This program is working exactly as it's designers intended. Fewer people will receive benefits. People who need the help are losing it. The small percentage who cheat will find a way to game the system and receive the benefits. These programs only have one purpose- - -reduce or eliminate the social safety net.
41
Working in some way assuming no non-working physical/mental constraints should be a metric in receiving any form of public subsistence. But, easier said than done!
There are many models to include Germany that provides interim monthly job funding providing the person is employed..be it a job training program or other. The employer is part of the metric and receives some incentive for supporting the program.
Of course, the "attitude" of the individual is important in that they perceive working as a viable alternative to doing nothing...pride! And, unfortunately, individual pride in one's "works" seems to be problematic in many parts of the US..
6
Another consequence of Medicaid cuts in Arkansas is the loss of healthcare jobs. Even without much education, you can earn a living serving food or cleaning or driving a shuttle bus for a hospital or rural clinic. All of those jobs depend on Medicaid money, which mostly comes from Washington, not from local taxpayers. So except for the state's politicians and their donors, this is entirely a lose-lose situation for everybody in Arkansas.
18
@Cheryl Woodard
When I lived and worked in the VA/D.C. area many years ago, it came as a surprise to a transplanted Californian that most of the jobs were either in the health care system or in road work. In other words, government work accounted for most of the work available; Federal and State tax dollars support many poor communities, a better use than for wars of choice and unnecessary empty military bases.
13
Train & hire the out-of-work, hopefully not PTSD-ridden military veterans, domestic violence survivors, recovering substance abusers, young adults who have just aged out of or are about to age out of foster care, and non-violent/hopefully reformed ex-convicts/college students needing paid part-time work to be the state-shuttled "boots on the ground" social outreach workers who will get work/civic engagement-eligible Medicaid recipients to register online, at dedicated public library and clinic/hospital/pharmacy computer kiosks, their qualifying volunteer work (including the stuff they do at church, the local PTA, public park clean-up, etc.)/school (academic & vocational) hours/therapy hours (behavioral & physical).
It's stupid to think that every Medicaid recipient has steady, rapid speed Web access on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.
Boots on the ground, well-trained, and reasonably supervised in-person outreach teams formed from already existing meeting groups/recovery-transitional-campus housing can bridge that annoying digital gap between the "plugged in" and "unplugged".
Granted, there may always be delusionally self-absorbed, 24/7/365 TV-watching, self-medicating welfare recipients who won't do any form of civic engagement no matter how much in-person outreach/case mgt you give them . . .
Still, not every welfare recipient is resistant to reviving & updating their work/social/civic engagement skills; they just need in-person guides to accessible kiosks!
7
most people who are on Medicaid are working or disabled
4
Why does the US government and US employers use health insurance as a club "to shape behavior" against poor and working people while higher income people escape this treatment? Employers use the threat of employees losing their job based health insurance to stop unionization efforts for example. Poor and unemployed and homeless get whipped if they aren't "working". Does working for Medicaid coverage eliminate the home/asset theft of Medicaid estate recovery for those age 55+? Hellooooo? Even begging on a street corner or collecting cans for recycling or selling used items on the sidewalk is WORK . By the way I do NOT WORK and I currently am ENTITLED to a totally free $650/mo unearned , not subject to any estate recovery program (!) , Obamacare subsidy to help buy my silver plan for which I pay $60
14
@xzr56 Okay, but why are you entitled to that?
Also: what do the quotes around "working" mean?
'Poor and unemployed and homeless get whipped if they aren't "working".'
1
@Blue/Violet Obama made me entitled to it.. its a TOTALLY FREE subsidy i never asked for nor earned.. I am FORCED by law to receive this FREE subsidy due to my income level. People my age who earn less get treated differently... much worse in fact; their home equity/savings get drained post age 55 to Obamacre's Expanded Medicaid Estate Recovery program. "Work" is any activity one does to support himself, as was clearly explained "Work" is not limited to working *for an employer* just to receive Medicaid, which would actually be another government subsidy to the employer! Under our employer sponsored health insurance system, all employers should be required to purchase private health insurance for every person who works for them no matter how many hours get clocked. Satisfied?
Higher income people don’t “escape this treatment.” Higher income people are the ones supporting the rest of the nation by paying exorbitant taxes.
2
Hey people of Arkansas, tired of Republican rule? Because it's only going to get increasingly worse for you. You will lose your healthcare, and the Trump tariffs will make your lives increasingly expensive as you shop for your families. Was Trump worth it? Are Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul helping you, or are they harming you. Think about it, and keep these thoughts in mind as you enter your local polling place this November.
26
@Raindog63
Trouble is, these actions are part of the overall plan to disenfranchise poor voters - and it's working very well for the GOP far right. No vote, no voice - all the politicos will need to do every morning is pick up the bodies of the voiceless, homeless, powerless dead.
3
Why do poor red states keep hurting their citizens? You just have to say you are more "conservative" than your opponent and they vote for you. State government has more of a visible effect on people's lives and platitudes don't work forever when the results become apparent. The "haves" are more concerned about someone possibly getting health care that they do not deserve than with improving economics conditions in general. Maybe the people will wise up and vote the Republicans out of office.
18
The work requirements are performing exactly as the Trump Administration intended.
21
I just read in Woodward's book, Fear, that the US spends 50 billion dollars a year in Afghanistan. Yet Republicans want to kick the poor off of Medicaid, cut Social Security for the elderly who have paid in all their working lives, even cut Meals on Wheels.
The 50 billion the US spends yearly in Afghanistan would pay for lots of health coverage in America.
We spend 50 billion annually because we think it's preventing a terrorist attack. How many people are dying or suffering from lack of medical care? That's real terrorism, letting Americans suffer while we spend billions on a never ending war.
47
@Linda
This is brilliantly stated. Why doesn't the press explain simple facts like this on the front page.?
Come on NYT. THIS is your push. Money on war vs. money for Americans. Even the ignorant can understand this.
4
@Linda Trillions. Many trillions.
3
@Linda
It's because the military is the only "permissible socialistic system in the USA". It's got a pension after 20 years, free healthcare, subsidized housing, free life insurance, VA service for vets, and free tuition if you want to go to college.
You have to admit, all these services "are to die for". You just have to sign up, assuming you are well enough, strong enough, mean enough to hold up in the military system. So much fun!
1
From making it hard to apply for benefits, putting as many obstacles in the way as possible to qualify, America manages to hurt most of its neediest. Note that this is not the case if one is rich and needs assistance. Then America falls all over itself to be as helpful as possible.
19
I live in a small town. A good percentage of the town's people are poor. At least there is a library where people can use the public computers. All the other towns in the county have no libraries at all. Let me repeat that. Only one town in the entire country has a library.
Living in the middle of the country is not like the east or west coast. There is no such thing as public transportation. Not even Uber or taxis. No buses. No trains. When Walmart was still open in town, I'd see scores of employees walking to work. When Walmart closed, the walkers were in a fix. There's few jobs in town and even fewer within walking distance.
If you're poor, have no car, and live in the vast part of the country with no public transportation, it's hard to find those jobs, volunteer opportunities, or educational opportunities. There is no online school for you if you live 50 miles from the closest computer.
I'm not saying people shouldn't try to better themselves, but without assistance to help better themselves, it's an uphill battle. No libraries. No public computers. No transportation. No educational opportunities once you graduate from high school. Rural American is a tough place to live and it's only getting tougher.
71
@Linda
Genuine question, I’m not trying to be snarky.
Why do you suppose people don’t move somewhere with more opportunity?
5
@Umm..excuse me - How does one move when you don't have any money, or a job or any way to get money or a job? Also, people, especially the working poor (of which I am one) rely heavily on friends and family to help out with rides, childcare and all the other details of life that we can't afford. Right now I'm waiting on a family member to repair my hvac system. Yes, I could call a service that would cost me $600+ as opposed to just paying for parts which will probably be less than $200. If you move, you lose that support network, inadequate though it might be.
1
@Umm..excuse me
Do you have any idea of the cost to moving away from where you might at least have some family support? Do you have any idea how much money you would need to rent an apartment, or a motel room, and pay for food and transportation while you looked for a job? Low tech service jobs do not pay a living wage, and offer no benefits. A living wage used to mean enough to save for a down payment on a home, or a car. It used to mean you could save enough to send your kids to college. It used to mean you could save for a vacation, maybe not in a rich Puerto Rico resort, but a lake camp site. We have become a plutocracy; that never ends well.
There are some people whose mental illnesses don't permit them to work. Any kind of stress -- deadlines, conforming to a work culture, ability to concentrate, competition, being confronted with expectations -- makes success impossible. If you are poor, society condescends. To put a work requirement on Medicaid recipients is to make their illnesses worse. If a Medicaid recipient is thought to have been mismanaging money, they might as well be an orphan in Dickensian England.
Paul Manafort spent $1 million on antique Persian rugs, which he earned illegally by supporting Yanukovych and doing secret deals with other Russian oligarchs in the Ukraine. Without Mueller's investigation, he would not have been caught.
Paul Ryan, whose a net worth is around $6 million, proudly tweeted about the benefit of a $1.50-per-week pay raise paying for a secretary's Costco membership. He didn't realize there was anything wrong with it, until there was an outcry.
The Puritanical scorn society pours on Medicaid recipients takes away any survival tools they might have had. Medicaid recipients are dealing with tragedy, mental illness, drug abuse, physical illness, among myriad ailments. They deserve help, not "tests and devices" put in place without their knowledge, which are designed to throw them off the program, so politicians can brag that they cut the entitlement budget.
37
It is not so that they can brag. Why are Medicaid recipients prioritized over the taxpayers who are barely making it and still have a large cut of their paychecks taken so that it can be mishandled by the government to administer, oversee, and recoup in fraud cases? Voters are tired of it and also broke and see no end if Dems take control to the open hands collecting money from them when they also can barely pay their bills.
5
Teuky, why fight others in need of help, instead of challenging the role of big business and lobbying in the distribution of tax dollars? Your enemy is not those in need.
5
Falling right into the right wing trap. Get the middle class to blame the poor instead of a government that does nothing but enrich the already rich. Good going. Rush must be proud.
I am surprised they did not do PSAs on TV and radio to advertise the changes and increase awareness. They should also advertise a helpline to assist people who have literacy issues or who can't respond online. A cynic would almost think the state govt. didn't want people to respond...
9
There's no 'Big Problem' here. That's exactly why the work requirement for Medicaid without informing people about it was enacted in the first place -- it's all in the effort to kick off as many people from the program as possible.
Fait accomplis.
34
The web site is earnest, but unnavigable for a person's first visit if the intent is to report work efforts. It must be hidden behind the registration screens. And the FAQs don't address the subject at all.
I'd put a simple text box on the opening screen headed "I want to:" followed by a list of basic actions which links each to its own starter page.
8
I suspect the vast majority who didn't hear about the changes can tell you all about how their favorite sports team is doing, and/or the antics of their favorite reality tv star.
12
@Len319. And the implication is that changes to Arkansas medicaid policy should now be on the cover of popular magazines and the focus of several tv shows? Or what exactly are you trying to insinuate?
4
@Len319
That would require internet access, wouldn't it? We are talking about people who do not have that. Of course, they might have old radios, or even a radio in a pick up truck? How far down the road do you want to go, Len319? I am old enough to remember Dust Bowl migrants who stopped to ask for gas from my grandfather's station. He gave it to them free; he also gave them boxes of canned goods from his market. He gave the kids ice cream cones. He didn't ask these poor migrants why they didn't get a job, because there were few jobs available in ranch country. My mother and grandmother collected clothes and added new, like winter sweaters. When you are poor enough to live in an abandoned boxcar, you are really poor. We didn't punish them for being poor, as you seem willing to do. FYI: Arkansas is one of those States my taxes help to support with Federal aid for education and health care. Guess you are not doing all that well.
Seemingly unrelated? Junk mail contributes to the challenge of getting people to open their mail. If I received mail intended for me and only me, I'd open every piece.
4
The State of Arkansas kicked more than 4,300 people out of Medicaid for the rest of 2018. Is it just a terrible coincidence that, at last measurement, Arkansas had more than 4,300 girls ages 15 through 19 who gave birth—approximately 12 per day - and the 4th highest teen birth rate in the United States in 2012? And since the state is clearly worried about cash flow - in 2008 (the most recent year for which cost data is available), the public cost of teen childbearing in Arkansas was $143 million.
Increase access to sex and health education, healthcare, birth control and abortion to cut costs in a way that respects the living.
19
This article is spot-on. My brother and I live in Arkansas. He is on Medicaid. He didn't know there was a work requirement until I told him. He called in at the last minute and was told he was OK, or so he says. I don't know if he is exempted or has to report; I can't get it out of him (probably because he doesn't know). He works full time as a waiter, making about $15,000 per year. He could make a lot more money, but doesn't want the hassle. He is happy as he is.
He is barely technically literate (I have worked with computers for 35 years), ignores email he doesn't want and often tosses postal mail unopened if he doesn't want to mess with it.
Fortunately he lives next door to me and I have some opportunity to make sure he qualifies for the benefits, and considerable incentive because I have been stuck with his medical bills in the past (though he has paid me back, eventually).
He's smart, a college graduate, but lazy as sin when it comes to stuff like this. I shudder to think what will happen if he were truly on his own.
And I am going on his word that he is still on the rolls. I fear I (and he) might not find out for certain until the next time he goes to the doctor. He only goes when he is really sick, because he doesn't like doctors poking and prodding him.
I hope he is not a typical Medicaid recipient, but I suspect he represents a pretty large section of recipients.
29
@Jeffrey Wood Jeffrey- your brother is lucky to have you and to have you next door. At first as you described him he sounded as if he had some intellectual disability but if he has graduated from college, that would not seem to be the case. Perhaps it is time for you to stop enabling his lifestyle and he would be more motivated to at least open his email and snail mail as well as look out for himself. Maybe you should even ask him for some help. He would experience what your life has been like regarding him.
1
Pretty smart. They make sure that the program threw out only those people with limited contact to the outside world such as extended families, legislators, nonprofit agencies, and of course the press.
9
Perhaps the 4,300 recipients already kicked off Medicaid, and the other thousands, should all head to the state capitol, and sit in front of the legislature. That way their representatives can come outside, give them job openings, sign them up for schools, training, etc. or, just stay there until the state’s volunteers walk around and help each one navigate their website.
Notifying them to show up at the capitol? Pick a date- word -of-mouth will probably do the rest. Or, neighborhood flyers....or some unknown opposition Party might offer to help get them there....and maybe register them to vote at the same time.
7
This isn’t an oversight. It’s a key ingredient
5
The unstated but obvious purpose of this 'work requirement' is to terminate the medicaid program completely. The ultra right extremists who are in charge of our government fervently want to extinguish ALL social benefit programs. And they're doing it.
16
I noted one factual error. Article said work requirement wasn't working as the architects intended - to raise Medicaid recipients out of poverty by encouraging them to work. Instead, thousands of people are being dropped from the rolls. Correction: That's EXACTLY how the republican authors of the new work requirement intended it to work.
13
Call it the GOP Ebeneezer Scrooge Plan, a way to deal with the "surplus population."
8
I went to site and tried to figure out even find the webpage to report work compliance. Failed after 5 minutes quit. Happy to try to register to vote?
7
They want to trim the roll. It is stupid to think that denying Medicaid will lift anyone out of poverty. I hate to tell ya'll this, but most Medicaid patients are not going to become coders or nurses and the jobs they can get don't pay enough to afford insurance and probably don't offer any to employees.
Fine, cut all Medicaid out. The people who use it are not going away and they're now going to lay down and voluntarily die when they need medical treatment. Sticking our collective heads in the sand isn't fixing the problem.
7
Poor people, Medicaid eligible people, seldom have computers of any kind and rarely have access to a public library or community college that might. Many are not literate, many don't have reliable transportation (public of private), and some are hard of hearing. Only a political appointee would think email, snail mail, hand outs, or phone calls would reach this population.
If you really want to reach this population, you stand at the grocery checkout on the 1st and 15th of each month and personally speak to every person who uses an EBT card. But that would mean actually talking to a poor person rather than at them.
Requirements were tried before, and they failed before. Sick people will only get sicker without medical access, and when they arrive at the ER they will be using the most expensive medical service billed. And if it is a Catholic ER, women in labor will be denied procedures that could save their lives. This isn't cost saving, this is cost shifting. But more than that, this is punishing the poor for being poor, the infirm for being infirm, the old for being old,the women for not being men, and the young for being born.
17
@HW Keiser
Sadly, punishment is what they're all about.
1
@HW Keiser TANF worked since 1994. Welfare mothers got better job prospects, even during and after recession downturns.
The people who are being denied health coverage should brush up on their bureaucratic skills, and use those skills to vote out those who put these draconian policies in place.
3
That outcome is not a flaw in the AK program-- it is a feature.
17
But I'll betcha the Trumpies are pleased as punch that 4,300 health thieves were tossed off Arkansas' plan and are pushing for more more more to go even as we read this story. The upfront cruelty of the Trump agenda advances again....
9
I'm waiting for Trump to repeal the child labor laws and make those free-loading tots work for their juice boxes!
18
I am fascinated by the cascading series of unintended consequences generated by the dumpster's pals, but it occurred to me that in this instance, it is not unintended at all, but rather a strategy to deprive people of needed aid while hiding behind programs that are almost guaranteed to fail.
Why would anyone in any part of government in Arkansas think that an internet only reporting system was the way to go? Naivete? Carelessness? Ploy to reduce compliance?? Shut my mouth!!
19
The point of the new regulation was to kick people off Medicaid. What better way to do that than to keep people ignorant of the rules, so they can't comply? Smart thinking.
5
There is a problem of understanding when people treat this issue abstractly, as if it's an debate of whether "healthcare is a right." The reality in this country is if you lack health insurance - and for poor people that means Medicaid, for the middle class it means being out of a job and unable to make monthly $500+ payments - you risk losing not just your health but your life. You risk bankruptcy, which for many means worsening health or possibly homelessness. It's a doubly whammy that the heartless GOP intends with their message: "Poor? Well, you better figure out how not to be! Good luck!" Some of the commenters here seem to think it can't happen to them, that poverty is a moral and they are better than that.
8
@Jean Campbell
The GOP under Bush/Cheney shipped manufacturing off to countries where multi-national corporations could benefit by exploiting cheap labor, and offering no benefits. Manufacturing used to provide good jobs with health care; it provided a living wage, enough to save for a small home and a college education for children. So, the GOP took that away, and is now looking to take away health care and subsidies for higher education. Of course, that will produce a growing, poor underclass, and finally another Recession/Depression. Paul Ryan grew up on his father's Disability benefits; he went to school on State and Federal grants. He is a smarmy taker.
1
Hmm. I wonder how many of those kicked off the program were Trump supporters? Maybe we will find out in November.
9
@charlotte
They probably didn’t vote.....
1
So basically this is working as designed, right?
11
1) Illness can prevent people from working as much as they used to.
2) That means less money coming in.
3) Which makes Medicaid necessary. So...
4) let's compel such people to work more.
5) Paging Lewis Carrol.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
8
@Rev. E. M. Camarena, PhD I'd like to page Charles Dickens. He had something to say about the lack of care for the poor. The Republican party has Scrooge's attitude: Let the poor die and rid us of excess population.
10
@Linda
I agree up to the point about republicans. Democrats are in on this too. America has bounced from republican to democrat to republican to democrat for over 100 years. The result is what's happening right now.
It's time to think outside the old "good cop/bad cop" scam.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
@Rev. E. M. Camarena, PhD
The Democrats did not vote for the recent tax heist benefiting the rich and corporations; that vote was taken in the middle of the night, only Republicans admitted into the room where voting was taking place. Democrats created Social Security, Medicare, and now the Affordable Care Act with subsidies for those who needed financial assistance. The GOP removed the subsidies. The GOP is a minority Party using voter suppression and gerrymandering to cling to a razor thin voting majority. They will lose that majority, and hopefully a decent Democratic Congress will repeal the tax bill, together with the specious Citizens United Decision which defines corporations as "individuals". I haven't seen GE collecting mail recently; I hope it is not sick.
1
Don't answer the phone or check voicemail?
Don't open mail?
Don't do a change of address with the PO when you move?
Don't check and email before deleting?
Oh well..... can't fix stupid or lazy
You can only wipe people's bottoms for them only so much
6
That website is a disaster.
6
If you're too stupid or too lazy to answer your phone or open your mail, then you're too stupid to be a U.S. citizen and should not be entitled to benefits.
5
Disgusting. Immoral. And, with Republicans in charge, coming to a community near you..
5
Without a doubt, people will die. The state of Arkansas doesn’t care.
6
The whole idea that people should somehow earn their eligibility for healthcare is preposterous. Most people don't go to see a doctor just for fun - they do it when they are suffering. Requiring people to earn or prove their eligibility for healthcare is akin to treating everyone as guilty of fraud unless proven innocent.
8
This policy is aimed at the poor in a blatant attempt to withhold health care. It is a tragedy that the administration does this and it is a crime against humanity.
4
“If there’s something we are not doing ..., we will do it."
Put public service announcements on every possible TV channel, radio station, etc. Ask all churches, temples, synagogues, covens, civic and veteran groups to inform their members verbally, every time they gather. Put an information table outside groceries like newspapers, Scouts, and the VFW do.
Reboot the entire system by requiring every person receiving aid to reapply, on-line, in-person, via doctor, or home visits.
Institute a yearly reapplication.
At the time of reapplying, each individual or caretaker would be given current information as to requirements for their category.
Care-givers (to disabled or children under a certain age) would be required to report in person and be subject to unannounced home visits.
Those qualified due to low income would do the work/school/job search and report activity in person, via phone, or via internet.
How to pay for this? Every person claiming low income, who wants coverage but cannot fill work/school requirement, would report to an administrative office to be trained as a worker in the program 20 hours per week. They will receive transportation and be paid 1/2 minimum wage plus receive their Medicaid benefits. A background check will be required. These trainees would learn to do home visits as well as the administrative work required.
Modern version of the CCC.
1
Many employers will only hire people part time to avoid providing benefits like health care, and the employee pay part is expensive even if you're full time (so much for getting off Medicaid through working).. Lots of families need child care in order to work, and it's also expensive, and may not be readily available. Then there are the issues like being qualified for a job, or passing drug tests (hard in states with legalized recreational marijuana, but have drug testing required for any job involving equipment, driving, or health care), or having reliable transportation to the job (not every place has functional public transportation). And as someone pointed out, in some jobs people get paid cash. So a work requirement for Medicaid sounds like it makes sense, but the realities are daunting. Certainly there are people who milk the system, but many who need it. How do we decide who has to work? Are there sheltered work environments and work mentors for those with developmental delays in your area? Is there job training to help people get jobs. Are there jobs for those lacking training? Wish there was an easy answer to this..
5
Ms. Webb seems to want recognition for taking flyers to an urgent care clinic during an appointment for her children. She's suggesting that the notification protocols are to take pamphlets on your way out the door to a medical provider. I'm not sure that's the best strategy for distribution. If that is the case, I can see why many medicaid recipients aren't aware of the changes. This also harks to the issues Ohio has with their change in voting registration. Many people don't read their mail.
6
I'm still waiting for Donald Trump to implement his work requirement for unemployment benefits. After all, he gets massive benefits, and hardly ever works.
29
@Chicago Guy He works VERY hard...at golfing, bragging, tweeting, lying, lowering his taxes (and hiding them), insulting people, conning his base, grabbing genitals, kissing up to oligarchs like Putin, and pretending to be our president. All that is a full-time job.
1
It seems brutal to toss people off Medicaid for the rest of the year for missing a deadline. My handicapped brother has Medicaid and this year, he missed the deadline for proving state residence. He missed it because the letter went to his 93 year old father, who has health problems. When my sister, a very accomplished and successful professional, picked it up, she struggled to figure out how to prove state residence and they didn't accept emailed proof and took a long time to process letters. So my brother was tossed off Medicaid in February (in Massachusetts). He got reinstated. Had he been off for a year, he might have suffered a cascading set of losses. To keep his job, he needs transportation assistance, to keep that, he needs proof of disability, that needs a recent letter from a doctor. To keep his subsidized housing, he needs income from his job.
If, instead of reinstating my brother, if Massachusetts had made him wait a year to get health insurance again, then a small problem (93 year old father failing to act on letter immediately) could have snowballed into homelessness. Subsidized housing has multi-year waiting lists. Jobs for people like my brother are hard to find. None of the things my brother might have lost would be easy to reinstate.
The real problem is the assumption that people who need government help are all capable of navigating bureacratic mazes that even accomplished, successful professionals struggle with.
130
@SAO
" .. The real problem is the assumption that people who need government help are all capable of navigating bureacratic mazes that even accomplished, successful professionals struggle with."
How do you think the people who dealt with Lois Lerner felt like?
Now you do. And the Democrats never, ever do anything about it.
@SAO
It makes me so sad ( and mad ) to see the hoops disabled people have to jump through for such basic services. This has to stop VOTE !
2
Yes, these programs generate additional work opportunities--for case managers, social workers, administrators, and others who're tasked with implementing them. Anyone who has actually worked with poor people and the alphabet soup of agencies ostensibly meant to serve them, can tell you this. Effective and efficient social welfare programs would actually put more people out of work than they would put to work.
16
Medicaid I believe is health insurance for those that cannot afford it or because they are disabled or because they are in a nursing home in a bed. Are there those that possibly work, sure. Are they in the majority I doubt it. They have to report their hours on line. Many are poor and don't have computers and those that might have limited skills. What a recipe for disaster. Demand people do the the near impossible than punish them for not doing it.
Maybe people on Medicaid should be informed of the rules when they go to use medicaid through some form of signed disclosure at the treating facility.
Maybe the state could offer regional workshops well advertised in newspapers and popular radio shows. These workshop could cover avenues to improve work skill, access to high school degree programs etc.
Maybe the officials should ask people on Medicaid how to best accomplish their goals.
25
@Roger the point of this is not to help people get to work. The point of it is a throw people out on their can.
6
@Roger
Maybe we could just have universal health care for everyone - like all the other industrialized nations of the world. Did you know that India is implementing universal health care? If they can do it - I think America could pull this off without the disastrous pronouncements Fox News suggests.
6
What does it take to register for Medicaid benefits? It seems to me that the channels people use to know about Medicaid and to get registered should be the channels that are used to inform people of the new requirements. Or maybe just switch to a single payer system for everyone so anyone who needs medical care is already enrolled, regardless of work or housing status.
20
I’m on Medicaid. I have never gone back to the registration site. Why would I? I’m signed up so I have no further need to go there. I doubt that any Medicaid client goes back to that site, especially since many low income people don’t have computers and have to go to the library to use one.
35
@Kathleen Flacy In Arkansas you have to go to the offices of Department of Human Services to register for Medicaid. You might be able to do it online, at least in part, but at some point they need to see documentation. Making people go back to DHS every three months probably wouldn't work well.
2
As several others have noted - the purpose of the program is to trim the roles and so mission accomplished.
There's nothing wrong with the idea of a work requirement to obtain benefits. All tax payers should support it; there's lots of consideration for those that truly can't work (disabled, etc) so there's a true safety net. We all need to inspire self responsibility while providing a safety net for those that just can't (not for those that don't try).
When people's checks don't come you would think they would take the time to figure out why. Ignorance is no excuse - just ask. Yes it takes a little initiative.
13
Disability isn't a "safety net" in real or practical terms. I worked there, and it takes forever (years) to get approved. If you are a younger person (under 50) it's extremely difficult to get benefits. That's why there is an entire industry of lawyers who've sprouted to "help" people get benefits.
19
Medicaid does not distribute checks. It is a form of health insurance. @deedubs
1
Please read the article. By the time the person doesn’t get the benefit it’s too late. The person is disenrolled for a year. Even if the person has a job they may be dumped from the system for not reporting employment.
Education about these systems is important for recipients. It’s also important to educate the public about how welfare works. There are bad assumptions about citizens in poverty that result in ignorant comments. If you think the DMV is hard to maneuver try getting thru the aid system. This is exacerbated by the Trump administration’s need to vilify poor folks and cut the budget through neglect.
6
Counting down in Kentucky to Jan. 1, 2019. All on hold per lawsuit. Governor Bevin says he will just cut all Medicaid if he doesn't get the work requirements and policy payments he wants. I believe he means cut Medicaid to all recipients that gained coverage with the expanded coverage in the Affordable Health Plan, but who knows. That is what I hear from the state, insurance companies and medical providers. It is a cluster of mismanagement, madness and cruelty.
32
@deborah wilson While cutting off Medicaid for everyone in KY would be truly awful, maybe the people of Kentucky will then get a clue: the Tea Party Republicans are not their friends.
5
Ronald Reagan signed the law requiring hospitals to serve anyone who shows up at the emergency room. Let's see how that works out. Without adequate access to ongoing preventive care, ERs are the solution of last resort. I hope the hospitals are ready.
24
@John. The hospitals really fear being shut down! Having insured patients has helped keep rural hospitals in business. This positive effect was emphasized when ACA was new in Arkansas; the jobs of the medical workers would be protected.
14
@John hospitals will.go bankrupt and close leaving rural.people longer distances to travel.for health care and raising prices for all of us. Since the individual mandate was declared illegal , people offended because they shouldnt have to pay for insurance have been showing up at ER's after accidents or illnesses and in many cases being admitted. No they didnt have to pay for insurance but we and the hospitals had to.
pay for the lack of it . This just adds another burden and the Republicans dont care
2
I suspect there are quite a few who can't report their work hours because they're working for cash, and are afraid their eligibility will be impacted.
34
@Jonathan
Suspecting something isn’t proof. It’s an excuse to cut poor people off much needed benefits.
4
Are these low income people being provided transportation to these required jobs? Do they even have cars? Are they supposed to walk how far exactly to get to work? Do the 'employers' want them at these jobs? Are they dressed appropriately, able to actually do the jobs, or do they look and act like the almost-homeless people they are?
Meanwhile, a lying sexual predator in the highest office in the land, a man utterly incapable of doing the job he didn't think he'd get, was consummately unprepared for, but ran for anyway, gets free housing, health care, food, security and transportation to his golf courses every weekend to the tune of $3,000,000 paid for by We The People.
You want a set-up for complete cynicism? There you have it.
191
Make America great again? When has America EVER been great?
I find us disgustingly mean, hard hearted, vindictive, selfish, greedy, etc. Thank God I live in California where we at least TRY to make life more liveable for the poor, the sick, the down and out. But for the grace of God go I.
How low can our country go?
3
@signalfire
Hey, before Newt got WJC's attention, welfare families were going into fourth generationd.
The pro-welfare crowd has some kind of nerve to keep complaining, as the taxpayer debt, in the face of rising Asia, begins to exceed WWII levels.
BHO and Pelosi made a constitutional mess of the PPACA by refusing to use the word "tax" -- and true to prediction, has caused years of litigation.
Go ahead, be honest, write it -- "more taxes are needed for this." Be the next Walter Mondale. Thanks.
@Bang Ding Ow, you have a nerve to complain about taxpayer debt without mentioning the $1-2 billion artificial deficit increase rammed through by gleeful Republicans.
It is those darn 'Unintended Consequences' that get in the way - like folks move and don't leave aforwarding address, or they don't open daily mail, or they don't answer the phone, or they don't have a working phone, and on and on.
Besides, the best information about how to introduce a new program of any kind says that you have to inform the audience in many ways, over and over and over again. They don'r listen or read the first notice. They may not understand it is for hem. etc etc. New programs need to be tested on a small group of the audience expected and then revised to get them right.What if a high percentage of the audience doesn't have a high reading score? You may need to set up group meetings around their working hours.
The effects found here are what happens with any new program. Does the state really want folks to sigh up or is it really a ploy to get folks off the system to save $$$$?
65
It's only fitting that a Republican state's citizens should enjoy the benefits of the Republican medical plan.
66
Yes, it IS fitting...if we're content with, and committed to, a "nation of mini-nations," each of which adopts social policy in the manner that its ruling politicians of the moment decide. Maybe those ruling politicians have only the slightest of majorities for only a small slice of time, but enact laws and promulgate regulations that have quite negative effects. And in the mini-nations model, the harsh policies of one jurisdiction produce unplanned effects on others, as citizens relocate to find the best fit between their needs and values and the governance of the state. You see how this works to undermine the " United" and magnify the "state"?
15
Why wasn't this on splattered all over FB? If the administration was so savvy using FB to influence voters it's pretty dumb to assume they couldn't use that same expertise to reach poor people on Medicaid unless their intention (which it the obvious truth) was to kill off the poor people costing the state money to keep alive. That's been the republican strategy to lower costs since forever. I remember in 09 all that kerfuffle from the FL congressman that put it so perfectly "The Republicans’ health care plan for America: "Don’t get sick." That’s right — don’t get sick. If you have insurance, don’t get sick; if you don’t have insurance, don’t get sick; if you’re sick, don’t get sick — just don’t get sick! That’s what the Republicans have in mind for you, America. That’s the Republicans’ health care plan. But I think that the Republicans understand that that plan isn’t always going to work — it’s not a foolproof plan. So the Republicans have a backup plan, in case you do get sick. If you get sick in America, this is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: "Die quickly." That’s right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick."
I remember how that got a bee in everyone's bonnet but to me, even at 24, it seemed blindingly obvious. The republican motto is if you cost more to keep alive then you bring in, your life isn't worth saving. And they have the gall to call themselves the prolife party!
2
“The state has tried workarounds — like offering computer terminals in county offices, and training volunteers to help people log their hours.”
C’mon, is the website easy to use on a smartphone? That is, does it have an easy to use mobile version (& just a website, not an app needing to be downloaded?)
The article says that AK is one of the states with the lowest internet penetration rates. What it doesn’t say is in this day and age, smartphones are the device that most members of the target population would be likely to be be using, to access any website... AK has to get real about this!
25
@2 Cents
ummmm . . . AK is Alaska.
3
@ 2 cents,
perhaps you mean AR?
Not everyone has a cell phone capable of using internet. There are those who don't have even have electricity. The are very poor people here that live in very rustic conditions.
@2 Cents It may be hard for some folks to imagine, but many low-income people in Arkansas cannot afford smart phones so their only internet access is from public computers. And just to clarify, AK is the abbreviation for Alaska. AR is Arkansas.
7
I expect that awareness will increase as people go to the doctor and find that their benefits have been terminated. Too bad, I guess, if they are really ill.
At the base is the fundamental disagreement - is healthcare a human right or a consumer service, earned by hard work? Moreover, it is a service earned by high paying work?
For the states which are trying to curtail usage, it is clearly a service you earn. If you are unemployable - disabled, too old to get someone to hire you and too young for benefits, or the last person to try to grab a chair when the music stops, then you are just out of luck. Best if you just die quickly.
We can attack the cost of healthcare. We can underwrite key health service - prenatal and maternity care, pediatrics, basic heart health, care of chronic conditions like MS or diabetes management, acute care for accident, injury or illness like flu. We can take care of our citizens.
But the will to find ways to do so is lacking. At some point the decision will be revolutionary not evolutionary, and less appealing than simply addressing the issue head on in a bipartisan manner.
But until then, guess you are just out of luck if you can't find a job.
45
@Cathy I believe Arkansas has done well to exempt the disabled and elderly. I agree with the work requirement for healthy adults. They can substitute education or volunteer service for the work requirement if they want. The reporting requirements are strict, perhaps too strict. But I don't see a problem requiring recipients to contribute in some way.
3
It's worth exploring Seema Verma's corporate background as soon as you read how enthusiastic she is about Arkansas' work requirement for Medicaid. And remember also how enthusiastic Republicans are about cutting social programs for the poor because their very rich constituents don't want to pay for them. Of course we can't afford to give away the store to dead beats but we also can't tell the less fortunate to pull themselves up by their bootstraps despite the fact you have no boots!
53
I always find it interesting that people are more concerned about "deadbeats" making out for a few hundred dollars a month than millionaires who do anything to avoid paying their share of taxes that contribute to the social good.
8
“administrative hurdles can cause eligible people to lose benefits.” This was the whole idea. Program working as GOP intended!
144
a perfect program... sort of like Ms Palin's death panels. but quicker. geniuses now running government to MAGA.
2
@Timothy Spradlin - Correct. It's not a bug. It's a feature.
3
Thanks, Timothy. You saved me a lot of typing. Essentially, it's part of the plan, man.
3
Why am I not surprised by this article? The state and the federal government are willing to do anything to kick the poor off benefits. They need to deploy hundreds of workers to implement this program if they truly want people who can to work. This is just another way to keep the poor, poor.
40
Here in Michigan they have figured out that the cost of administration for work requirements for Medicaid costs so much that the state will only save 1-2 million dollars. They’re still going ahead with work requirements in 2020. That’s Republicans for ya.
18
@Anita Larson
On the other hand, they could hire poor people to administer the work requirements. I'm not sure how much money that would save; probably too much for the GOP.
To make things even harder: the Arkansas website indicates that it's only available between 7AM and 9PM-- not available currently
34
@Michael Bush
Good grief, that's ridiculous
3
I don’t believe for a second that this program was initiated or implemented with any sincerity or thoughtfulness. Republicans prove over and over again that they don’t care who dies from lack of access to medical care. Sure it’s reasonable to expect that an able-bodied and mentally capable person taking our tax money should seek employment. But it is also extremely reasonable and rather basic to understand that many of these people have various roadblocks to employment, in this case a state that acted like the bureaucrats in “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” who posted a notice on a basement bulletin board that Arthur Dent’s house was to be demolished for a new bypass and then were surprised that he hadn’t seen the notice.
37
Agree that many people I know, as well as ourselves, are bombarded with junk snail mail and junk email, much of which is not opened or caught in the spam filters. It would be all too likely to jettison most of it without reading it. Requiring an internet connection is just plain lazy when one quarter of the recipients may not have a connection. As to the website itself, I tried it and got the message "We are sorry, but the Arkansas Works/Medicaid website is currently unavailable due to scheduled maintenance. The portal is available from 7:00 am to 9:00 PM daily."
56
When the purpose of a work requirement is to reduce enrollment in Medicaid, we must expect that the people appointed to implement it will do so in a way that will reduce enrollment as quickly as possible. That is why Ms. Sanger-Katz provides a link to the Arkansas website.
Let's drop the pretense. The work requirement is not an attempt to achieve any noble purpose whatsoever. The Republicans never intended to make Medicaid better and more accessible. They intended to trim the rolls and they are succeeding. If they have their way, they will cutoff a large number of people who won't live long enough to be reinstated.
126
You are correct.
Causing people to lose their benefits is a feature, not a bug.
they don't want to spend money to help the poor and sick.
I will leave you to insert your own observations about hypocrisy.
6
@OldBoatMan
Why no explanation of why able-bodied persons age >age 62 should be supported by working taxpayers? What makes them better than the latter?
That is the issue here, OldBoatMan.
@Bang! You're old! You're infirm from years of physical labor! Get back to work, you slacker!
I find it deeply infuriating that a program about the importance of finding paid work is "training volunteers" to help people learn to use their online system.
104
This is a tough one. I am a progressive libertarian and believe in work requirements for able bodies welfare recipients but Medicaid deals with health.
Every American deserves an affordable, quality, universal health care system that almost all of our peer countries have.
I would stress work requirements for able bodied welfare recipients but not for Medicaid.
18
@Paul You obviously have never had to take care of children because your working spouse left. See if you can find a bit of understanding for the woman in this link:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/i-am-a-welfare-mom-1318466351882294.html
2
I’m a lifelong Democrat, and I believe in society helping those in need, particularly those who cannot help themselves. But we need to face a reality, which is that there are plenty of people in this country who have absolutely no interest in working. You see it everywhere here in central New York. Maybe a work requirement is the answer? Who knows. I do know that the GOP is not the party to implement it. But we do need to do something about the fact that welfare (as a broad term) has become a lifestyle for a lot of people in this country.
30
Sure, you’re a “life long democrat”. Sure you “see many people that have no interest in working”. Sure you do, I totally believe you.
5
You're right: various subsidies and tax cuts for millionaires has created a culture of do nothing for the wealthy. Try living on what welfare or unemployment pays, it's not the lap of luxury. Focus your anger on the corporations shirking taxes and hedge fund managers who don't engage in meaningful work but get special tax treatment.
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@Mike Do you actually know people who are on "welfare", living the good life? Homelessness is an increasing problem. 1 in 6 children deal with lack of food. The middle class is fast disappearing I'm told. Articles lately have focused on teachers who in spite of having a full time position need to have another job, while spending their own money for needed class room materials and sometimes feeding and clothing students. What is it you think you see in central New York? Talk to some folks and see if it reinforces your assumptions.
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The Johnson and Johnson Foundation had a program years ago that tried to inventory the skills of potential volunteers so they could be matched with needs. Some Medicare recipients have real skills such as foreign language proficiency, handling of colicky babies, cooking, gardening, playing musical instruments. Recipients might react positively to a skills inventory. The challenge is then finding situations where their skills can be used where there aren't conflicts over security and competition with other people's jobs. Still it might be good for everyone if they were matched with a nursing home or day care center. If some middle class person volunteers to play the piano for senior citizens it is assumed they won't steal. If the person is receiving SNAP benefits the assumption of honesty may be questioned and the potential volunteer might have more transportation issues. Still the volunteer might benefit psychologically and in their public mage from showing up to play piano for or play cards with seniors. Ask J&J how those programs worked out.
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