U.S. Appeals Court upholds Medicaid work requirements block

February 20, 2020

We were thrilled to see the news that a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has upheld the block against Trump administration’s work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The decision is especially impactful for ensuring that low-income families and adults can continue to access health care services.

The concept of work requirements for health care coverage is inherently flawed – it’s hard to work when you’re sick and it’s hard to get healthy without access to care. Proposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients also ignores the reality that over 60 percent of non-disabled adults on Medicaid are already working – they just often only have access to low-wage, physically demanding jobs that don’t offer health care coverage.

WSHA has long supported expanding health care access. Health care policy should be focused on strengthening accessible health care, rather than implementing punitive and unnecessary barriers to care that target low-income individuals in the form of work requirements.

We applaud this decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals and will continue to support policy that expands access to care at the state and federal levels. If you’d like to learn more about our work in this area or become involved, please contact me or visit the WSHA website.

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