Manatt’s Cindy Mann, a partner with Manatt Health, spoke to Healthcare Dive on Medicaid work requirements at the National Health Policy Conference 2019, hosted by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
A new round of demonstration waivers, have been promoted by the Trump administration as “key tools” that states can use for flexibility within Medicaid and the individual markets. A number of figures in the health industry have criticized the waivers for “constraining plan eligibility—often for America’s most needy populations,” Healthcare Dive reports.
Health practitioners at the conference claimed that instituting work requirements tying health benefits to work stipulations under Section 1115 is “foolhardy without careful consideration.” Eight states have received approval for Medicaid work requirements, with eight more states considering the requirements.
“You cannot have it both ways,” Mann said. “You cannot have Medicaid be a welfare program that’s supposed to do X, Y and Z to push people off public benefits and also be that consistent source of coverage for low-income people.”
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