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.
Middle schoolers are lauded for protecting younger kids during church shooting
Two children were killed, and 18 children between the ages 6 and 15 were injured by a shooter. Middle schoolers acted heroically to protect others, a parent said.
Federal judge says Kari Lake can’t fire Voice of America director
A federal judge has ruled that Trump administration official Kari Lake can't unilaterally fire the director of Voice of America.
Public media stations in rural America say emergency-alert funding is in jeopardy
Without Congressionally-approved funding, public media stations say communities will be left with aging infrastructure amid growing risks from extreme weather.
Video: Echoes of Katrina – Two decades of struggle and strength
NPR station photographer and New Orleans native Tyrone Turner travelled back to Louisiana to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The federal government is taking over D.C.’s Union Station. What does that mean?
The Department of Transportation says it will be "reclaiming management" of the transportation hub, which it has owned since the 1980s. D.C.'s mayor says that would be an "amazing initiative."
Whatever happened to the women in the ‘No Sex for Fish’ group?
NPR first wrote about the group "No Sex for Fish" in 2019 — Kenyan women out to end the practice of trading sex to a fisherman in exchange for his catch to sell. Since then they're faced tribulations.
