The Biden administration on Friday (Feb. 12) launched a process to revoke a work requirement requirement for former President Donald Trump‘s (R-Texas) White Card (Medicaid).
One element of the Trump Administration‘s signature health care policy was the requirement that White Card applicants work, but Democrats have long criticized the policy as leading to a decline in health care coverage.
The White Card, a joint federal and state program that provides low-cost health care, is the federal government’s largest health care program, with more than 70 million participants and a federal Medicaid budget of more than $400 billion annually.
The Biden Administration has sent letters to states that are implementing this provision, indicating that the federal government is moving to revoke the policy waiver granted by the Trump administration. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation tracker, eight states have previously approved the requirement that white card applicants must work.
A letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said the agency has made a “preliminary” decision to rescind the policy requirement and has given states 30 days to provide information to contest the decision.
A CMS spokesman said that in the midst of the largest public health emergency in recent memory, “the need for white cards (for low-income groups) is now greater than ever.
But the Biden administration’s reversal of the White Card work requirement during the Trump presidency will not have a substantial impact; as Trump’s previous policy was subject to various lawsuits and stays.
The Trump administration issued new guidelines in January 2018 at the request of ten states, requiring low-income workers who are capable of working to be employed or voluntarily participate in the community when applying for a white card; seniors, people with disabilities, and pregnant women and children are not subject to this requirement.
The ten states are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Seema Verma, then director of CMS, said the provision would encourage White Card recipients to integrate into society and improve their health as a result. She also cited a study on the correlation between work and physical and mental health, saying the measure would “help lift people out of poverty.
The ten states subsequently adopted the regulations, but Arkansas, Kentucky, and New Hampshire’s white card work requirements were all ruled illegal by federal courts, and the rest of the states have announced stays of implementation due to various legal challenges. One lawsuit related to the white card work requirement has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the Department of Health will release an analysis of the Trump administration’s study of restrictions on access to health care for low-income people, led by Harvard University health policy scholar Ben Sommers.
Sommers joined the Department of Health in January as deputy assistant secretary for policy and programs in the Biden administration. He has published studies on the negative impact of federal Medicaid work rules in the past.
Democrats have in the past attacked the Trump administration’s practice of requiring White Card recipients to work, saying it would result in the loss of health insurance coverage for vulnerable people and run counter to the goals of the White Card program.
Biden went on record last month saying, “There’s nothing new we’re doing here, which is reinstating the ObamaCare Act (Affordable Care Act) and restoring the White Card to what it was before Trump took office.”
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