HHS/LAWSUIT/MEDICAID/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Advocacy groups on Tuesday [8-14-18] filed a lawsuit challenging the decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to allow Arkansas to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients in the state. The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in federal court in Washington on behalf of three Medicaid recipients in the state, claims that the federal Medicaid law does not allow the administration to approve work requirements. The case, filed by lawyers at the National Health Law Program Legal Aid of Arkansas and Southern Poverty Law Center, is similar to an earlier challenge to a work requirement program in Kentucky, which a judge has halted…In June, Arkansas became the first U.S. state to require that many able-bodied Medicaid recipients do some combination of work, volunteer, job training or schooling for a minimum of 80 hours each month to keep their benefits, a sweeping shift in healthcare rules. Those who fail to meet the work requirements for any three months will be locked out of health insurance for the remainder of the year.”
–Brendan Pierson, “Trump administration sued over Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirements,” Reuters, August 14, 2018 2:57 pm