Trump Is Right To Let States Impose Work Requirements for Medicaid

Medicaid expansion has gotten out of control. Work requirements will give able-bodied Medicaid enrollees what they really need: full employment.

The Trump administration announced Thursday it will allow states to impose work requirements on abled-bodied adults to qualify for Medicaid. This marks the first time the federal government has allowed any kind of work requirement for Medicaid eligibility—and it’s about time.

On the surface, work requirements for Medicaid might seem cruel or punitive. After all, Medicaid is supposed to provide health coverage to the poor and disabled, the most vulnerable among us. As a policy proposal, work requirements may seem almost tailor-made to make Republicans look cold and heartless.

But the reality is that Medicaid, like most federal and state welfare programs, has gotten so out of control and strayed so far from its original purpose that imposing work requirements on able-bodied adults will actually help enrollees far more than Medicaid coverage will, mostly by giving them a strong incentive to secure full employment.

Medicaid Wasn’t Supposed to Be This Massive

But before we get into the weeds of welfare dependency, let’s recall what Medicaid is. Created in 1965 along with Medicare, Medicaid was originally conceived as a program to provide health care to strictly defined groups: poor children deprived of parental support, their caretaker relatives, the elderly, the blind, and those with disabilities. In 1986, states were given the option to include poor, pregnant women and their infant children.

Read the rest from John Daniel Davidson HERE.