Health

In 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encouraged states for the first time ever to require work as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid, despite the fact that most adults on Medicaid who are able to work are already working. Since then, at least seven states have received approval from the Trump Administration to take Medicaid coverage away from people who don’t meet work requirements, with additional requests pending. The Medicaid work requirements approved and proposed to date will harm children, as parents and caregivers lose the health coverage they need to work and care for their children. Losing coverage will only serve to push vulnerable children and families deeper into poverty. Although children themselves are not be subject to work requirements, some states have applied for waivers that would require parents and caretakers of young children—sometimes as young as six months old—to work. We recently joined 56 organizations on a letter to HHS Secretary Azar about these pending waiver requests on very low-income parents and caregivers covered by Medicaid.

Read CDF’s comments on two states waiver applications, Kentucky and Mississippi, to learn more about the imposition of any work requirement will harm children as parents and caregivers lose the health coverage they need to work and offer quality care to their children.