Alabama Seeks Comment on Plans to Add Medicaid Work Requirement
Alabama wants to require some Medicaid recipients to work if they want healthcare coverage. The public has until Thursday to comment on the plan. The state’s proposal would require “able-bodied” adults to work, take classes, do job training or volunteer to receive Medicaid. Some, such as pregnant women and the disabled, would be exempt.
One analysis showed a Medicaid work requirement in Alabama would most affect mothers, African Americans, and families in rural communities. The Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter last week to Alabama’s Medicaid Agency opposing the state’s plan. WBHM’s Andrew Yeager spoke with the group’s deputy legal director Sam Brooke.
Interview Highlights
Why the SPLC opposes a work requirement:
“Our belief [is] that really this isn’t so much a work requirement as a work paradox because people are going to be forced into an impossible situation. They’re going to either lose coverage because they’re not able to do the work for one reason or another. Or else they’re going to lose coverage under the Medicaid program because they’re going to start working the minimum 20 hours and their income’s going to take them over that $247 a month threshold. And so they’re going to lose Medicaid coverage because they earn too much, but still they will earn too little in order to purchase coverage themselves.”
Why the SPLC sees an extension of Transitional Medical Assistance, which is designed to help those leaving Medicaid rolls, as inadequate:
“We appreciate that change from six to 18 months, but it’s still woefully insufficient. To use an old analogy, it’s still a bridge to nowhere. It’s still a situation where once you get on this path, you’re going to be cut off. It’s just a matter of now it’s going to happen in 18 months instead of six months. Most likely … individuals in this circumstance are not in 18 months going to find themselves in a position where all of the sudden they’re earning enough that they’re going to be able to pay for this themselves or be in a stable enough situation that they’re going to be suddenly getting health insurance from their employer.”
WBHM reached out to Alabama’s Medicaid Agency. A spokeswoman says they can’t comment because the public comment period has not closed.
Public comments can be submitted through Thursday, August 30th via email at PublicComment@medicaid.alabama.gov.
PBS cuts 15% of jobs in wake of federal funding cut
After Congress clawed back public media funding PBS cuts 15% of its staff. More than 100 jobs jobs are being lost.
President Trump plans to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War
The change would return the department to a name that it carried for much of its history, until it became the Department of Defense in the wake of World War II.
The U.S. is designating Ecuador’s largest gangs as terrorists
The U.S. is designating Ecuador's two largest gangs — Los Choneros and Los Lobos — as foreign terrorist organizations.
For mixed status families, deportation fears cast shadow over new academic year
As the new school year begins, mixed immigration status families face heightened fears about ICE enforcement near schools, creating anxiety that extends far beyond the classroom.
Senators from both parties grilled RFK Jr. on vaccines and more
In a blistering hearing, Senators from both parties challenged the health secretary to defend his actions, including on vaccines access and CDC leadership.
Why the medical community is thrilled by U.S. support for a ‘breakthrough’ HIV drug
Lenacapavir has the potential to end the HIV epidemic, researchers say. The Trump administration says backing this kind of effort will be a model for how it does global health work in the future.
