Make Medicaid Recipients Work? Speakers at Public Hearing Say No
Governor Kay Ivey and other state leaders want Alabama to join a handful of states that require some Medicaid recipients to work or go to school. They say that would save money, cut unemployment, and improve health as people switch to private insurance. The proposal affects only able-bodied parents or caregivers of children under 19 who qualify for Medicaid because their family income is at or below 18 percent of the federal poverty level. But when the Alabama Medicaid Agency held a hearing on the plan Tuesday, the crowd strongly disagreed with it.
A dozen people at the Hoover Public Library took the podium and every speaker criticized the proposed Medicaid changes. Pediatric neuropsychologist Joe Ackerson wanted the crowd of more than 50 to know where he was coming from.
Dan Carsen, WBHM
Dr. Joe Ackerson speaks to more than 50 people at Tuesday’s public hearing on proposed changes to Medicaid in Alabama.
“I am not a Democrat,” he said. “I am not a Republican. I’m a scientist, and I’m a doctor. I’m here to talk on behalf of my patients and people with disabilities that depend on Medicaid for their very survival.”
He talked about low-income patients – and the people caring for them – who can’t work, adding, “As a decent society, we pay taxes in order to help those people that need extra help to get by. It’s the Judeo-Christian thing to do. It is the proper, right, moral, ethical thing for people to do.”
Lianne Webb says she’s suffered from health problems, and she worries enforcing the requirement wouldn’t save money.
“Doing all that work, all those people … I just don’t see it ever becoming budget-neutral,” says Webb.
This was the last of two public hearings in the state, but people can still comment by mail and through the Alabama Medicaid Agency website until April 2. After that, there will be a national comment period. All comments become part of Alabama’s application for a federal waiver to try the proposed changes for five years.
Alabama has more than a million Medicaid enrollees, and more than half of them are children. The Alabama Medicaid Agency says the proposed requirement would affect up to 75,000 people.
You can learn more about the Alabama’s proposed plan, including who would be exempt from the work requirement, here.
Anthropic settles with authors in first-of-its-kind AI copyright infringement lawsuit
A U.S. district court is scheduled to consider whether to approve the settlement next week, in a case that marked the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems.
Under Trump, the Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its ban on noncompetes
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has called his agency's rule banning noncompetes unconstitutional. Still, he says protecting workers against noncompetes remains a priority.
Anthropic to pay authors $1.5B to settle lawsuit over pirated chatbot training material
The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay authors $3,000 per book in a landmark settlement over pirated chatbot training material.
You can trust the jobs report, Labor Department workers urge public
A strongly-worded statement from Bureau of Labor Statistics workers comes a month after President Trump attacked the integrity of the jobs numbers they release monthly.
Headed to the FBI, Missouri’s Andrew Bailey opposed abortion, backed Trump
Andrew Bailey rose quickly to be state attorney general of Missouri where he built a record for fighting abortion and defending Donald Trump. Now he's a co-deputy director of the FBI.
How Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans are reacting to Trump’s National Guard threats
Even after a federal court ruled his use of the National Guard in LA was illegal, the president has weighed sending troops to Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans. Here's where things stand in those cities.
